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J 



HISTORY 



OF THE 



u 



in 





By B. W. McDONNOLD, D.D., LL.D. 



There shall be a handful of corn in \the earth upon the top of the mountains; 
the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon. — Psahn Ixxii. 16. 

Let us watch awhile the sowers, 

Let us mark the tiny grain, 
Scattered oft in doubt and trembling, 

Sown in weakness or in pain, 

— F. R. H. 



NASHVILLE, TENN.: 
Board of Publication of Cumberland Presbyterian Church. 

1888. 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1888, by the 

BOARD OF PUBLICATION OF THE CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, 

In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



4*- 



v* 



PREFACE. 

At the suggestion of Dr. D. M. Harris, the Board of Pub- 
lication of the Cumberland Presbyterian church contracted with 
the writer for the preparation of this history. The size of 

the book was limited by the board before a line of it was 

# 

written. It was also understood between us that only the 
minimum of time consistent with thoroughness was to be 
allowed. Casting the horoscope of the book under these lim- 
itations, there were found just three things to choose between. 
The first was to end the volume where my own life became 
a humble factor in our history, and where interested feelings 
might prevent clear-sightedness. The second was to condense 
our whole history, giving each event and actor a place. The 
third was to make such selections from the whole field as 
would furnish a volume of good reading for our people, and 
illustrate our life and progress. The first method was not 
acceptable to my counselors, either in the board or out of it. 
The second method would have produced a book which no- 
body would read. The third method involved the inevitable 
complaints of all those who might be omitted, besides open- 
ing other doors of complaints not found in the first method. 
After many consultations the third method, with all its 
inevitable complaints and inevitable omissions of good men 
who deserve mention, was deliberately adopted, and the work 
of gathering material from the whole field, and studying every 
particle of this material so as to be able to make the best 

(Hi) 



iv Preface. 

selections, was undertaken. I had gone but a little way in 
this work before I discovered the utter impossibility of accom- 
plishing it without more time than was at first proposed. 
More was granted, but with the pressing demand that it be 
made as brief as thoroughness permitted. My only fears on 
that point are that it will be found by experts that I made 
that time far too brief. 

Under the same limitations the plan was formed about the 
different States. It was to give the origin of the church in 
each State, with as much fullness of detail as could well be 
secured, extending the record only to the organization of the 
first presbytery, closing that chapter with a rapid summary view 
of the present condition of our church in that part of the 
field. There were certain subjects belonging to all periods 
to which special chapters were reserved, to be placed at the 
last of the book; and if they brought out any thing further 
from the work of our people in any particular State, at any 
later period, all well; and if not, there would be no further 
notice taken of that portion of the church. 

The question of brief biographical sketches was also care- 
fully weighed, and finally decided in the negative. To this 
decision an exception was made in the case of those gener- 
ally called the fathers of the church. If a biography formed 
part of the very thread of the history which I was writing, 
just so far was it also made a part of this volume. There 
were placed in my hands some very interesting biographies 
which contained no single item that could be used accord- 
ing to my established programme of operations. 

It was not so much to show how our church originated 
as to show what it has done since it originated that this 



Preface. v 

book was undertaken. In showing this, my best strength 
has been put forth to the utmost. In that part of the work 
I was fortunate in gathering materials. I reaped, also, the 
fruit of past labors. The materials mostly relied on for this 
part of the history were manuscripts. Of these my collection 
was extensive. Among them were manuscripts from James 
McGready, Finis Ewing, Samuel McAdow. Robert Bell, Rob- 
ert Donnell, and Thomas Calhoun. 

In 1845, while boarding at Calhoun's house, and often 
meeting there various actors in the events out of which 
our church originated, I commenced taking down from the 
lips of these old men a full history of the origin and work 
of our church. The statements from Calhoun, McSpeddin, 
Lowry, and Aston covered all the main points of our history 
up to 1845. ^ n spite of war and fire these memoranda have 
been preserved, and were used in the preparation of this book. 
The habit of collecting such memoranda, begun in my boy- 
hood, has been kept up ever since, and the accumulation of 
reliable materials in that way is now considerable. 

At two different periods in my life I have been called 
upon to travel over the church. In the last period of travels 
I spent twelve years, visiting more than four fifths of the 
entire denomination; and though neither of these extensive 
tours had any reference to collecting materials for a history, 
yet that old habit of keeping memoranda was all the time 
unintentionally furnishing matter for such a work. So, too, 
did that old habit furnish me the only existing records which 
I can now find of the proceedings of the conventions held by 
our people in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 1863, and in Selma, 
Alabama, in 1864. 



vi Preface. 

There were placed in my hands for use in the preparation 
of this little volume sixty manuscript autobiographies, some 
brief, and some extending to five hundred pages of foolscap. 
Two of these were the lives of men who were arraigned be- 
fore the commission of Kentucky Synod. The original record 
books of all our first judicatures have also been examined, and 
the archives of old Cumberland College and of Cumberland Uni- 
versity were consulted, as well as many other official records. 

The literary remains in full of Richard Beard, Milton Bird, 
David Lowry, and President Anderson, all very extensive, were 
all explored. Parts of the literary remains of various others 
were placed in my hands. Of this latter class I mention 
James Smith, W. A. Scott, John W. Ogden, Finis Ewing, F. 
R. Cossitt, Robert Donnell, H. A. Hunter, Isaac Shook, and 
Herschel S. Porter. Dr. Beard's old letters date back to 1830, 
and are from all the chief actors in our church from the be- 
ginning. There are perhaps eight thousand of these letters, 
and they discuss every important subject that has ever been 
before our denomination. They will all be filed in the library 
of Cumberland University. 

The private diary of Dr. Beard has been of great service 
to me. Indeed, diaries are the most trustworthy of all man- 
uscript authorities. There was a considerable number, of these 
placed in my hands. Most of them are to be returned to their 
authors' families. Others, together with many manuscripts, are 
to be filed in the library of Cumberland University. 

It required more than fifteen months' constant labor to ex- 
plore all these authorities. Files of from one to five weekly 
papers (and various monthlies) for a period of fifty-seven years 
had to be examined. " The ninth ripening year" was not 



Preface. vii 

allowed me for all this work, but past studies rendered some 
little compensation for this lack of time. Dr. Lindsley's labors 
in collecting material also saved me much delay. The fruit 
of his noble toil has been freely used in preparing this volume. 

The generous assistance of many brethren was extended to 
me in collecting material. The list of the names of those breth- 
ren would be* too long to give here, but God keeps all the 
roll. He knows how generously some of them struggled to 
help me; and he will not forget their labor of love. 

The board secured the services of a very learned commit- 
tee to revise the manuscript before it went to press, and they 
had unlimited power not only to correct errors, but also to 
strike out from the manuscript whatever they saw fit. They 
corrected several minor errors, and there may be others which 
neither I nor the committee detected. Those who have read 
"The Biography of a Lie" know how even an accumulation 
of authorities may sometimes ^mislead a writer. I have de- 
tected mistakes in authorities where mistakes seemed to be 
impossible. It is by no means likely that I have detected all 
in the authorities relied on for this volume. 

It is proper here to state that, with my full consent, the 
book editor made great changes, especially in certain parts of 
the last two periods of the history. In this he had the as- 
sistance of the able committee already mentioned. My history 
of the sixth period was prepared in such haste that great 
changes were no doubt needed. 

And now to Him for whom every line of this book was 
written, and to whom all its future destiny is committed, I 
leave this volume to be used as His infinite wisdom may 
determine. 



EDITOR'S PREFACE 

Before the work of editing this volume was begun, the Board 
of Publication appointed a committee consisting of the Rev. J. 
C. Provine, D.D., the Rev. M. B. DeWitt, D.D., the Rev. W. E. 
Ward, D.D., and the Rev. D. M. Harris, D.D., to assist the book 
editor in this task. Several meetings were held, and some of the 
chapters were read and discussed by the whole committee. But 
this method required so much time, and such difficulty was ex- 
perienced in securing a full and regular attendance at the meet- 
ings, that it was arranged for the members of the committee sep- 
arately to read the manuscript, indicating their suggestions, and 
leaving the work of making changes to the book editor. 

As the work progressed, and especially when the record of the 
closing period of the history was reached, it seemed to the com- 
mittee and to the editor necessary to give a somewhat fuller 
account of certain events and certain departments of the church's 
work than that found in the manuscript. Accordingly the editor 
greatly extended the history of the relation of Cumberland Pres- 
byterians to the Presbyterian Alliance, the history of city and 
home missions since the war, and of the Trinidad, the Japan, and 
the Mexican missions; of Waynesburg College, of the first efforts 
of the church to establish schools in Pennsylvania and Ohio and 
in the West, of the revision of the Confession of Faith, and of 
several minor matters. As stated in the body of the work, Dr. 
Harris made large additions to the sketch of Lincoln University, 

(ix) 



x Preface. 

and John M. Gaut, Esq., prepared the history of the Board of 
Publication found in the forty-seventh chapter. The sketch of 
Cane Hill College in the forty-sixth chapter was furnished by 
the Rev. F. R. Earle, D.D., president of that institution. The 
index at the close of the volume was prepared by the Rev. J. P. 
Sprowls, D.D. All these changes and additions were made with 
the cordial consent and approval of Dr. McDonnold. 

The editor desires to acknowledge the valuable assistance he 
has received from his colleague and co-laborer, Dr. Harris, and 
the no less helpful suggestions of Dr. Provine and Dr. DeWitt. 
By reason of the illness and death of Dr. Ward, the committee 
was, except in the earlier stages of the work, deprived of the 
counsel and suggestions which his literary attainments and wide 
knowledge of our denominational history so well fitted him to 
give. 

In reading and re-reading this volume, first in manuscript and 

afterward in the proof sheets, the editor has been more and more 

impressed with its value as a most important contribution to our 

denominational literature. By the simple naturalness and beauty 

of his style, by apt illustrations and well-selected incidents, Dr, 

McDonnold has imparted to these pages a living interest and a 

charm which it is believed will make their perusal a delight. 

This book is sent forth to ,the church and to the world with the 

confident hope that it will awaken, not only among our own 

people but wherever it shall be read, new interest in the history 

and doctrines and future wqrk of the Cumberland Presbyterian 

church. 

J. M. Howard, Book Editor. 
Nashville, January, 1888. 



CONTENTS 



FIRST PERIOD. 



FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE GREAT REVIVAL TO THE 
ORGANIZATION OF THE COUNCIL, 1796 TO 1806. 



CHAPTER I. 

STATE OF THE COUNTRY. 

The country called Cumberland. Indian warfare. Anecdote of 
Daviess and Donnelson. Pioneer women. Colonel Joe Brown. 
Privations and hardships. Boating to New Orleans. Mail 
facilities, 1-4 



CHAPTER II. 

LITERATURE AND RELIGION. 

Education without books. The first school in Cumberland. Ten- 
nessee's first "meeting-house." Charles Cummings. Ken- 
tucky. Rice and Craighead. Formal worship. Unconverted 
church members and ministers. Richard King. Lifeless 
preaching. Conversion of James McGready. His removal to 
Kentucky, 5-9 



CHAPTER III. 

THE GREAT REVIVAL. 

Fasting and prayer. McGready's covenant. Gasper River. Gen- 
eral awakening. Muddy River. Sinners falling prostrate. 

(xi) 



xii Contents. 

Origin of camp-meetings. Spread of the revival. Its origin 
in McGready's churches. The " Cumberlands " not " New 
Lights." Shouting. Tokens. "The Union," 10-19 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE REVIVAL A GENUINE WORK OF GOD'S SPIRIT. 

Testimony of David Rice, and of the Presbyterian General As- 
sembly. George Baxter's testimony. David Nelson in the 
"Western Sketch Book." James Gallagher. Methodist tes- 
timony. Dr. Speer's history. Infidelity and the revival of 
1800. Modern missionary progress and the revival, .... 20-26 



CHAPTER V. 

A PENTECOSTAL BAPTISM. 

The gift of the Holy Ghost the distinctive privilege of the new 
dispensation. Finis Ewing's testimony. Anecdote of Ewing. 
Mr. Moody and "the power." Anecdotes of Donnell and Cal- 
houn. Dr. Samuel Miller and H. F. Delany. An ordination 
incident. James B. Porter in a Presbyterian camp-meeting. 
The sublime faith of our first preachers. Calhoun dealing 
with disturbers. Solemn covenants. Remarkable answers to 
prayer. Testimony of our first preachers, 2 7~3& 



CHAPTER VI. 

OPPOSITION TO THE REVIVAL. 

Opposition to McGready's work in North Carolina. Balch in Mc- 
Gready's Kentucky churches. Violence. Hyper-Calvinism 
logically anti-revival. " Old Side " objections to revival " meas- 
ures." Camp-meetings and the " mourners' bench." Argu- 
ments. An "orderly" meeting. Misrepresentation. The 
" Stoneites." An editor's mistake. " The jerks," . . . .39-47 



Contents. xiii 

CHAPTER VII. 

THE SECOND DIFFICULTY— MINISTERIAL EDUCATION. 

Pressing need for more preachers. David Rice's advice. Ander- 
son, Ewing, and King before the Transylvania Presbytery. 
Anderson received as a " candidate." The General Assembly's 
advice. The revival party's statement. Statement of James 
Hutchinson, Esq. King as a lay exhorter. Anderson. Mc- 
Lean. Porter. Chapman. Division of Transylvania Pres- 
bytery, and formation of Cumberland Presbytery. Ordination 
of Anderson, Ewing, and King. The educational question 
not the cause of division. Proofs. Efforts to secure education 
for young men. Presbyterian testimony then and now. How 
shall we evangelize the masses? 4S-65 

CHAPTER VIII. 

THIRD DIFFICULTY— DOCTRINES— RESERVATIONS IN 
ADOPTING THE BOOK. 

Reservations in adopting the Confession. Meanings of "fatality." 
Dr. Davidson's testimony. Two charges. Unsoundness of 
doctrine the chief difficulty. Platform of union with South- 
ern Presbyterians proposed in 1867. "Elect infants," and the 
Westminster Assembly. Dr. MacCrae, of Scotland. The West- 
minster creed an incumbrance to revival preaching. Testimony 
of Dr. Chalmers and Dr. SchafF. Creeds and theodicies. Sig- 
nificant incidents in the Belfast Council. The mission of 
Cumberland Presbyterians, 66-J6 

CHAPTER IX. 

FOURTH DIFFICULTY— TRAMPLING ON A PRESBY- 
TERY'S CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS BY A 
SYNODICAL COMMISSION. 

The two parties in Cumberland Presbytery. The Commission. 
Statement of charges. The young men appealed to. For- 
bidden to preach. This action pronounced unconstitutional 
by the Presbyterian General Assembly. Bitterness of the peo- 
ple against the Commission. Mr. Lyle, 77~^ r 



xiv Contents. 



SECOND PERIOD. 

FROM THE FORMATION OF THE COUNCIL TO THE OR- 
GANIZATION OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY, 
1S06 TO 1829. 



CHAPTER X. 

THE NEW CHURCH. 

The Council. Why the revival party did not appeal from the 
Commission's decision. Cumberland Presbytery dissolved. 
The Council's efforts for reconciliation. Lyle's tears. The 
Assembly's final decision. The Council's last effort for recon- 
ciliation. Gloomy outlook. Cumberland Presbytery re-organ- 
ized. "The Cumberland schism " not a schism. Measures 
adopted by the new Presbytery. Rigid rules and discipline. 
Strict Sabbath observance. Lack of regular pastorates. Meth- 
ods of education and study. List of the ministers belonging 
to the new presbytery, 82-92 



CHAPTER XL 

FIRST AIMS— NECESSITY FOR A SYNOD— ITS ORGAN- 
IZATION—SKETCHES OF ITS MEMBERS. 

A separate denomination not at first aimed at. Formation of a 
Synod. Presbyterial boundaries. Pen-and-ink sketch of the 
members of the synod. McSpeddin. Harris. Philip Mc- 
Donnold. William McGee's anxiety about the new creed, . 93-97 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE CONFESSION OF FAITH — SYNOPSIS OF DOC 
TRINES — FULLER CONFESSION— A MEDIUM 
SYSTEM— DIAGRAM. 

Exceptions about fatality. Outline statement of doctrine. Fuller 
creed adopted. Exhibit of changes in the Westminster Con- 



Contents. 



XV 



fessions. Additions. "The medium system." Diagram of 
creeds. Conditions of communion, 98-108 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE THREE PRESBYTERIES — OLD CUSTOMS NOW 

DROPPED. 

Three Presbyteries. Tokens. Col. Joe Brown's case. Fencing 
the table. Elders in presbytery. Extended fields. Fast days. 
A three-fold plan. Plans for securing and supporting itiner- 
ants. Final failure of this system. Origin of the name, Cum- 
berland Presbyterian. Presbyterial libraries. Preaching on a 
call to the ministry. Demand for preachers in. new fields. 
Catechising. Necessity for a school discussed. Prejudice 
against statistics. Camp-meetings in neglected neighborhoods. 
The doctrines preached, 109-119 



CHAPTER XIV. 

HISTORIC CHURCHES— PLANTING CHURCHES IN TEN- 
NESSEE AND KENTUCKY. 

Red River church, Kentucky. Gasper River. Beech church, 
Tennessee. Big Spring. Thomas Calhoun's pastorate. Smyr- 
na. New Hope. Mt. Moriah. Goshen. Origin of the Nash- 
ville church, 120-127 



CHAPTER XV. 

EARLY MISSIONS TO THE INDIANS. 

Proximity of the Indians. Quickening of the missionary spirit. 
Indians at camp-meetings. Mission work by the presbyteries. 
Mission of Samuel King and Robert Bell. Bell's Mission and 
school, 1820. Indian customs. Traditions of the Tombigbee. 
The first Board of Missions for the whole church. The 
Russellville church, Kentucky. Details of Bell's missionary 
work. Letter from an Indian chief. Mrs. Bell's diary. Re- 
moval of the Indians. End of Bell's mission, 128-141 



xvi Contents. 

CHAPTER XVI. 

PLANTING CHURCHES IN THE NEW TERRITORIES OF 

EAST AND WEST TENNESSEE AND THE 

KENTUCKY PURCHASE. 

New fields. East Tennessee. McGready's letter to East Ten- 
nessee Presbyterians. An ecclesiastical barrier. Calhoun and 
Robert Donnell in East Tennessee (1815). Calhoun's tour 
the next year. David Foster. The Rev. J. S. Guthrie. Other 
laborers. The Rev. George Donnell. Organization of Knox- 
ville Presbytery. Hardships. West Tennessee. John L. Dil- 
lard and the Rev. James McDonnold first in this field (1820). 
Richard Beard (1821). Difficulties. Camp-meetings. Or- 
ganization of Hopewell Presbytery. Jackson's Purchase, 
Kentucky. B. PL Pearson's labors. Missionary work of 
Logan Presbytery. M. H. Bone. Incidents. Church growth 
in Kentucky, * 142-154 



CHAPTER XVII. 

PLANTING CHURCHES IN ALABAMA. 

A glance at the history of Alabama. Robert Bell sent to Hunt's 
Spring. Calhoun. Robert Donnell. Other laborers. Circuits. 
South Alabama. Efforts to form a presbytery. Labors of 
William Moore, Samuel King, R. D. King and Daniel Patton. 
Tombigbee Presbytery organized. Anecdote of R. D. King. 
A sermon by William Moore. Alabama Presbytery. Rem- 
iniscences. Hindrances, 155-163 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

PLANTING CHURCHES IN INDIANA AND ILLINOIS. 

Indiana. William Harris' visit. Missionaries sent to Wabash and 
Indiana. Hardships. Organization of Mt. Zion church. 
Other congregations. Incidents. Illinois. First Cumberland 
Presbyterian sermon in this territory. John Crawford. Inci- 
dents. Green P. Rice. First Illinois camp-meeting. D. W. 



Contents. 



XV il 



McLin. Second camp-meeting. Chapman's missionary tour. 
Sparse settlements. Hardships. Illinois Presbytery organ- 
ized. Comparison of church growth in Indiana and Il- 
linois, . 164-174 



CHAPTER XIX. 

PLANTING THE CHURCH IN MISSOURI AND ARKANSAS, 

- 1811-1829. 

First Cumberland Presbyterian sermon in Missouri. Daniel Buie. 
R. D. Morrow sent to Missouri. J. T. A. Henderson's boy- 
hood home. Morrow's second trip to Missouri. McGee 
Presbytery organized. Finis Ewing in Missouri. "School of 
the Prophets." Labors of R. D. King and Reuben Burrow. 
A home supply of preachers. Pioneer missionaries: Robert 
Sloan, Archibald McCorkle, H. R. Smith, Frank M. Braly. 
Anecdote of Braly. A. A. Young. Daniel Patton. Adventure 
of William Blackwell. Arkansas. Emigration thither of the 
Pyatts and Carnahans. John Carnahan's circuit. Ordination 
of Carnahan. The first sacramental meeting in Arkansas. In- 
cidents. An " intermediate " session of McGee Presbytery. 
Labors of R. D. King and Reuben Burrow. Camp-meet 
insrs. Sickness. Return of Burrow and Kinor to Missouri. 
Arkansas Presbytery. Settlement of Cane Hill. The Buch- 
anans. Cane Hill College. Bands of robbers. Guilford 
Pylant, 175-200 



CHAPTER XX. 

THE COLLEGE— THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY— SUMMARY 
OF WHAT HAD BEEN DONE. 

Need of a college recognized. Plan adopted. Details. Dr. 
Cossitt. Expediency of organizing a General Assembly dis- 
cussed, 1823. Reasons for delay. Last meeting of the Gen- 
eral Synod. List of the presbyteries and original members. 
Four synods formed. The synodical period, 201-206 



xviii Contents. 



THIRD PERIOD. 

FROM THE ORGANIZATION OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY 

TO THE REMOVAL OF CUMBERLAND COLLEGE, 

1829 TO 1842. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

GENERAL SURVEY. 

The transition period. State of the church. Changed times. 
Progress. Mistakes. The college. Home missionary prog- 
ress. Statistics. Revivals. Camp-meetings. -Appeal cases. 
Samuel King's tour among the churches. Temperance. Fra- 
ternal intercourse with other churches. A theological school 
• demanded. Church growth. Change from missionary evan- 
gelists to pastorates. New presbyteries and synods. Finan- 
cial troubles, . 207-213 

CHAPTER XXII. 

THE FIRST CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIAN COLLEGE. 

Outward and internal history. A manual labor institution. The 
college located at Princeton, Ky. Buildings. Debts. Lease 
of Barnett and Shelby. Cholera. Barnett's lease surrendered. 
A stock company formed. Threats. Reviving hope, followed 
by failure. The Assembly decides to select a new location . 
Lebanon, Tenn., chosen. Report of the Commissioners. Pro- 
test of the friends of Princeton. Resolution against the control 
of pecuniary matters by the Assembly. Cumberland College 
after "the removal." Internal history. A homespun costume 
prescribed. Refectory and dormitories. Presidents. Pro- 
fessors. Dr. Beard's administration. Dr. Azel Freeman. 
Alumni, 214-228 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

THE CHURCH PAPER. 

Origin of the Religious and Literary Intelligencer. David Lowry. 
The paper moved to Nashville. Sold to James Smith. 



Contents. xix 

Smith's multiplied labors. The paper becomes the Cumber- 
land Presbyterian. Hopeless indebtedness. T. C. Anderson, 
assistant editor. Efforts to increase the circulation. Smith's 
agreement with the Assembly. Editorial denunciations. No 
General Assembly, 1839. Convention at Nashville. Its action. 
Smith's Cumberland Presbyterian at Springfield, Tenn. He 
denounces the convention. Strife and division. Smith's col- 
lege at Springfield. The Banner of Peace. Action of the 
Assembly, 1840. Smith's subsequent course. Preachers who 
have joined the Presbj^terians, 229-241 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

THE TRANSITION FROM MISSIONARY EVANGELISTS 
TO PAID PASTORS. 

Self-denying missionaries. Opposition to settled pastors. Pro- 
posed abolition of pastorates, 1830. Action of West Tennes- 
see Synod. Misconceptions. Pastors and evangelists. Cal- 
houn's testimony. False ideas of " supporting the gospel." 
Two anecdotes of Dr. A. J. Baird. Wrong training. Rob- 
bing pastors. Meager pay of circuit riders. The credit sys- 
tem. The scriptural method, 242-252 



CHAPTER XXV. 

THE CHURCH IN MISSISSIPPI AND LOUISIANA. 

Bell's Mission. Bad character of settlers in the Indian country. 
Anecdote of a slave trader. An Indian comment on the 
Bankrupt Law. Removal of the Indians from Mississippi. 
Rush of settlers. " Seizing the golden opportunity." Temp- 
tations. Religious apostasy. Isaac Shook's testimony. For- 
mation of Mississippi Presbytery. Shook's meetings at Co- 
lumbus. Denominational progress in Mississippi. Mississippi 
Synod organized. Presbyteries. Mississippi preachers. An- 
ecdote of R. L. Ross. Louisiana. First congregation organ- 
ized. Louisiana Presbytery, 253-262 



xx Contents. 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

PLANTING THE CHUECH IN TEXAS. 

American colonist in Texas. Sumner Bacon. Bacon in Texas. 
Attacked by ruffians. First Texas camp-meeting. Bacon's 
work. The Rev. Mr. Chase. Bacon's ordination. A. J. Mc- 
Gown. San Jacinto. Texas Presbytery formed. Robert Tate. 
Samuel W. Frazier. James McDonnold. Work of R. O. 
Watkins. Other helpers. Darkness followed by revival. 
Table of dates, . 263- 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

ORIGIN OF THE CHURCH IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

The Rev. Jacob Lindley. Visit of M. H. Bone and John W. 
Ogden. Request of Presbyterians in Washington County, 
Pa. Action of the Assembly. Arrival of the missionaries. 
Morgan's account. Morgan's first sermon in Pennsylvania. 
First meetings, and their results. Formation of the first Cum- 
berland Presbyterian church in this State. The first camp- 
meeting. An incident. Anecdote of Burrow and Donnell. 
Bryan at Pittsburg. Formation of a presbytery. LeRoy 
Woods' work. Jacob Lindley's testimony. The Carmichaels 
church. Uniontown. Hopewell. J. T. A. Henderson. 
Brownsville. Bryan at Meadville. Pittsburg. Anecdote of 
Bryan. Death of Morgan. The Union and Evangelist. 
Pennsylvania Synod formed, 273-291 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

ORIGIN OF THE CHURCH IN OHIO. 

Visit of Bone and Ogden. Morgan's visit to Athens. His return. 
Result of his labors. Morgan's Ohio Camp- meeting. Inci- 
dents. Our first church in Ohio. Beverly. Mr. Lindley's 
labors there. Senecaville. A circus incident. Cumberland, 
Ohio. Lebanon. The Rev. F. G. Black's work. The Coving- 
ton church. Our church in Ohio, 292-300 



Contents. xxi 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES AND INCIDENTS. 

Revival at Bowling Green, Kentucky. A Kentucky camp-meet- 
ing. A sample church under the supply system. Anecdote of 
Hugh B. Hill. "Stars falling." Beginnings of Cane Hill 
College, Arkansas. Anecdotes of John Buchanan and T. C. 
Anderson. Duelling condemned by the Missouri Synod. 
Andrew Jackson and J. M. Berry. Conversion of an infidel 
woman. Anecdote of R. D. King, 301-309 



FOURTH PERIOD. 

^ROM THE "REMOVAL" OF THE COLLEGE TO THE 
ST. LOUIS ASSEMBLY, 1842 TO 1S61. 



CHAPTER XXX. 

A GENERAL SURVEY. 

Progress. Records of the General Synod and Assembly. Opening 
sermon of the Assembly of 1843, by Milton Bird. No Assem- 
bly in 1844. The Assembly of 1845. Organization of the 
Board of Missions. Work of this board. A Committee on 
Publication. A new Publishing Committee, 1847. Its work 
at Louisville. Transferred to Nashville 1858. Our Hymn- 
book history- The Board of Church Extension. Fraternal 
correspondence. Relations with the New School church. 
With the Old School. Efforts to secure a history of the 
church. Fast days. A last message from Robert Donnell. 
Colleges. New synods and presbyteries, 310-321 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

MISSIONS— 1843-1860. 

Missions in the new Territories. City missions. David Lowry's 
mission to the Winnebagoes. Cumberland Presbyterian mis- 



xxii Contents. 

sionaries under the American Board. David Lowry's visit to 
the Choctaw country, 1854. His report. R. W. Baker's work. 
Armstrong Academy. Burney Academy. Faithfulness of 
R. S. Bell and Mrs. Bell. Letters from Israel and George 
Folsom. The Foreign work. Edmond Weir in Liberia. His 
visit to America, 1857. Discouragements. Other foreign 
fields discussed. Candidates. J. C. Armstrong appointed 
missionary to Turkey, 322-335 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

PLANTING THE CHURCH IN THE NORTH-WEST— IOWA 
AND OTHER FIELDS. 

David Lowry's work. Church organized in Joseph Howard's 
house. J. G. White in Iowa. The first Iowa camp-meeting. 
Iowa Presbytery formed. Neil Johnson's labor. Ruffianism. 
David Lowry's missionary plan for the North-west. J. C. 
Armstrong's work in Iowa. A camp-meeting. A horse racer 
converted. Waukon. P. H. C rider. A letter from Armstrong. 
Organization of Colesburg Presbytery. Hardships and dan- 
gers. Our meager strength in Iowa. Other North-western 
States, 33 6 "34 I 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

OREGON AND CALIFORNIA, 1S44-1S60. 

Gold ana God's providence. Oregon. Difficulties in the way of 
its colonization. Fur traders. The first settlers. First Cum- 
berland Presbyterian colony in Oregon. J. E. Braly. Crossing 
the plains. Whitman's Station massacre. Neil Johnson's 
journey. Cholera on the plains. O-ther dangers. Our first 
Oregon congregation. Oregon Presbytery. Efforts to estab- 
lish a college. Jacob Gillespie. Self-sacrificing missionaries. 
Presbyteries. Acquisition of California. Gold. Transient 
settlements. Mixed population. An unfaithful missionary. 
Others who were faithful. John E. Braly. Letter from T. 
A. Ish. Cornelius Yager. Linvillc Dooley. Anecdote of E. 
C. Latta. Organization of California Presbytery. Mushroom 



Contents. xxiii 

churches. Mountain View church. J. M. Small at Napa 
City. Pacific Presbytery. Cumberland College at Sonoma. 
T. M. Johnson and the Pacific Observer. D. E. Bushnell's 
testimony. Johnson, a peace-maker. Fascinating opportu- 
nities. Difficulties and advantages. Our California presby- 
teries. Idaho, 34 2- 35^ 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

SUNDRY SMALL BEGINNINGS— NORTH CAROLINA, 
WEST VIRGINIA, GEORGIA, KANSAS. 

Visit of Reuben Burrow and Robert Donnell to North Carolina. 
Feeble beginnings abandoned. West Virginia. Our work in 
Georgia. A. Templeton and Z. M. McGhee. A war anecdote. 
Georgia Presbytery. The political struggle in Kansas. Letter 
from an emigrant. Round Prairie church. Kansas Presbytery. 
Leavenworth Presbytery. Missionaries. Presbyteries, . . 357-361 



CHAPTER XXXV. 

MISCELLANEOUS. 

Concentration. Mushroom colleges. Theological school. Dis- 
agreement. Theological School of Bethel College. Action 
of the Assembly. Dr. Burrow's teachings. A living question. 
Missions. Fear of centralization. Proposed consolidation of 
newspapers. Arguments pro and con. Books. Crisman's 
Origin and Doctrines. Dillard's Reply to Lewis A. Lowry. 
Cossitt's Life and Times of Ewing. Anderson's Life of Don- 
nell. Beard's Theology. Dr. Beard as a theologian. Contro- 
versies. Dr. Burrow's departures from the traditional faith. 
Decay of camp-meetings. Church trials. Profitless contro- 
versies, 362-372 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 

SKETCHES AND INCIDENTS. 

The Memphis church. Anecdote of Matthew H. Bone and Hugh 
B. Hill. Story of Benjamin Watson. Facts from P. G. Rea's 



xxiv Contents. 

History of New Lebanon Presbytery. Compensation of 
preachers. Anecdote of James Johnson. An Indian's con- 
version. A mother's Sunday-school. A discouraged teacher. 
Anecdote of M. H. Bone and F. G. Black. Story of a stam- 
mering preacher, 373"379 



FIFTH PERIOD. 

FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE CIVIL WAR TO THE 
WARRENSBTJRG ASSEMBLY, 1861 TO 1870. 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 

TEN ASSEMBLIES, 1861-1870. 

Presbyteries, North and South. Location of church boards. 
Representatives in the Assembly of 1S61. Reports of boards. 
Assembly of 1862. Southern presbyteries unrepresented. 
Temporary Committees on Missions and Publication. Re-or- 
ganization of these committees in 1863. Removal of publish- 
ing interests to Pittsburg. Assemblies of 1864 and 1865. 
State of things in the South. The Chattanooga Convention. 
Missionary committee. Convention at Selma, Ala. Letter 
from Milton Bird. The Southern Observer. Memphis Con- 
vention. Assembly of 1866. A general fast day. Missionary 
boards. Re-organization of the Board of Publication at 
Nashville. Proposed Organic Union with Southern Presby- 
terians. Conference of committees. Result. Proposed re- 
vision of form of government. Consolidation of missionary 
boards. Controversy about the plans of the Board of Mis- 
sions. Action of the Assembly of 1870. Abolition of the 
synod discussed. Church periodicals. New presbyteries, 380-390 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

THE WAR RECORD. 

Assemblies and Conventions. Milton Bird's opening sermon, 1S61. 
Resolutions. Resolutions adopted in 1862 and in 1863. Deliv- 



Contents. xxv 

erance of 1S64. Protest. Action in 1S65. Position of South- 
ern Cumberland Presbyterians. The Chattanooga Convention. 
Deliverance of the Assembly of 1S66. Action of Pennsylvania 
Synod. Of the Assembly at Memphis, 1S67. At Lincoln, 
186S. Relations Of Cumberland Presbyterians to slavery. 
Finis E wing's views. McAdow. Ephraim McLean. Robert 
Donnell's prayer. Testimony of Dr. Beard's diary. A typical 
case. The Revivalist on slavery. Testimony of the Cum- 
berland Presbyterian, 1S35. Changes wrought by political 
agitation. Action of the Assemblies of 1848 and 185 1. Pres- 
ent attitude of the church. Its Southern membership, . . 391-419 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 
PREACHING TO SOLDIERS. 

Chaplains. Army missionaries. Methods of work by chaplains. 
Their trying duties. Denominations forgotten. Work in the 
Union armies. Labors of A. W. White and G. N. Mattox. 
A. G. Osborne. H. H. Ashmore. Hiram A. Hunter. J. W. 
Woods. S. Richards. The Southern army. Resolutions 
adopted by Southern chaplains. Revival in Bragg's army. 
Death of George L. Winchester. Cumberland Presbyterian 
Committee on army missions. J. L. Cooper. Nightly serv- 
ices during Johnston's retreat. A picket incident. Other- 
incidents. Hardships of Southern chaplains. M. B. DeWitt. 
A. G. Burrow. Revival in the Southern armies, .... 420-431 

CHAPTER XL. 

COLORED CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIANS. 

Order of things before the war. An illustrative case. Colored 
people at camp-meetings. Colored preachers before the war. 
The change wrought by the war. Conventions of colored 
Cumberland Presbyterians at Henderson, Kentucky, and 
Huntsville, Alabama. Action at Murfreesboro, May 1869. 
A separate organization. A colored commissioner at the As- 
sembly of 1870. Progress of colored Cumberland Presbyte- 
rians. Their General Assembly. School at Bowling Green, 
Kentucky. Our duty to the colored people. Letter of J. F. 
Humphrey, 432-439 



xxvi Contents. 

CHAPTER XLI. 

MISSIONS— 1860-1870. 

Missions in towns and cities. Itinerant missionaries. New Territories 
entered. R. S. Bell's work among the Indians. Liberia and 
Turkey. Gloomy letters from Edmond Weir. His second 
visit to America. Abandonment of the Liberia mission. J. 
C. Armstrong's mission to Turkey. His voyage to England. 
Arrival at Constantinople. Greek Christians from Brusa. 
Troubles. Providential relief. Work done by Armstrong. 
His illness and return to America, 440-447 



SIXTH PERIOD. 

FROM THE ASSEMBLY AT WARRENSBURG, MISSOURI, TO 
THE ASSEMBLY AT COVINGTON, OHIO, 1870 TO i887. 



CHAPTER XLII. 

SEVERAL GENERAL ASSEMBLIES. 

Growing spirit of unity. Quarterly collections. Day of prayer 
for colleges. Need of ministers. Death of Milton Bird. 
John Frizzell elected stated clerk. Discussion of the revised 
Form of Government. Proposition for organic union with 
Northern Presbyterians. Proposed terms of union. Response 
of the Presbyterian committee. Result. False ideas. Visit 
of James Morrison and Fergus Ferguson. Anecdote of Fer- 
guson. Corresponding delegates. Address of J. S. Flays of 
the Northern Presbyterian church. Old School Presbyterian 
delegates. Assembly at Jefferson, Texas. Other Assemblies. 
General Superintendent of Sunday-schools. M. B. DeWitt 
succeeded by J. H. Warren. Address of Dr. E. D. Morris, 
1879. Semi-centennial meeting. The Woman's Board. Its 
work. A Woman's Board in 1818. Negotiations concerning 
organic union with Evangelical Lutherans. Important meas- 
ures adopted in 1881. Revised Confession of Faith approved, 
1882. Vote of the presbyteries. T. C. Blake elected stated 
clerk. John Frizzell the first elder moderator. The Assembly 



Contents. xxvii 

at Bentonville, Arkansas. Dancing condemned. Consolida- 
tion of papers. Board of Ministerial Relief. New books. 
History of the Presbyterian Alliance and the relations of 
Cumberland Presbyterians with it. Death of Dr. A. J. Baird. 
New synods and presbyteries. Statistics. Freedom from 
proselyting, 448-468 



CHAPTER XLIIL 

MISSIONS. 

Progress. City missions. Our work in St. Louis. Mission at 
Little Rock, Ark. Kansas City, and Sedalia, Mo. Logansport, 
Ind. Chattanooga, Tenn. Other missions. Successful ad- 
ministration of the board's affairs. Importance of Home 
Missions. Indian missions. Bethel Presbytery. Work among 
the Cherokees. Foreign Missions. Action of the Assembly 
1870-1873. Dr. S. T. Anderson sent to the Island of Trinidad. 
History of his work. His return. J. B. and A. D. Hail ac- 
cepted as candidates. The Japan mission. M. L. Gordon. 
The Hail brothers. J. B. Hail in Osaka, Japan, 1S77. Beginning 
work. A. D. Hail joins his brother, October, 1S78. The first 
sermon. Interest in the work. Difficulties. A Sunday-school 
organized. First baptism and communion service. Fruits at 
home. The Woman's Board. Extending work. Denomina- 
tional literature. Arrival of Misses Orrand Leavitt. " Denarii 
boxes." "A woman's meeting." The Osaka church. Mis- 
sionary conference, 18S3. A great revival. Scattered member- 
ship. Elders. Principles governing the work. Arrival of 
Mrs. A. M. Drennan. The Wilmina School. Other labors of 
Mrs. Drennan. Corea. Growing fruits. Organization of 
congregations. Churches built. A native council or pres- 
bytery. ( Work of Miss Orr. Arrival of Miss Duffield. 
Wakayama. Miss Leavitt's work. Shingu. Schools. Jap- 
anese young men in America. Arrival of G. E. Hudson and 
wife and Miss Rena Rezner, December, 1886. Members of 
the mission. Benefits of denominational work. Co-operation 
with other churches. The Mexican mission. Appointment 
of the Rev. A. PL Whatley. His preparatory visit to Mexico. 
Aguas Calientes. Needs of the work. Plans of the board. 
Consecration of F. P. Lawyer. Dr. Bell's lectures. The 
Missionary Record. General remarks, 469-508 



xxviii Contents. 

CHAPTER XLIV. 

CUMBERLAND UNIVERSITY— 1842-1SS7. 

"Removal" of the college. R. L. Caruthers. Trustees. The 
first faculty. A University charter. The buildings. Obliga- 
tions to teachers. T. C. Anderson made president, 184^. 
Free tuition to candidates for the ministry. Free boarding. 
Endowment. J. M. McMurray's work. The law depart- 
ment. Other departments. High grade of scholarship. 
Extension of buildings. President Anderson's administration. 
The theological department. Dr. Beard. The University 
closed by the war. Buildings burned. " Rcsurgam" Re- 
opening of the school. Purchase of the Caruthers property. 
Prejudice and ill-feeling. Dr. McDonnold's presidency. How 
the work was sustained. Gifts to the University. "Camp 
Blake." Preparatory schools. The life insurance plan. The 
disaster it brought. Nathan Green made chancellor. Progress. 
Buildings. Relation of the theological school to the Univer- 
sity. Education of young women. List of members of the 
faculty. The law school. Endowment. Duty of men of 
wealth, 509-526 



CHAPTER XLV. 

WAYNESBURG COLLEGE — LINCOLN UNIVERSITY 
TRINITY UNIVERSITY. 

Three educational centers. Efforts to establish denominational 
schools in Pennsylvania and Ohio. Action of Pennsylvania 
Synod, 1838. Greene Academy. Madison College. Anecdote 
of John Morgan. J. P. Weethee's work in Madison College. 
Beverly College. Mr. Weethee president. Expected results 
not realized. Beginnings of Waynesburg College. The build- 
ing. First graduates. Charter. Professors. Joshua Lough- 
ran the first president. J. P. Weethee becomes president. 
Difficulties. Mr. Weethee's resignation. President p?'o tcm. 
and faculty. A. B. Miller made president. Dr. Miller's labors. 
Mrs. Miller. Graduates. Teachers trained at Waynesburg. 
A new building. Endowment. Religious influence. Value 
of Waynesburg College. Lincoln University. Early efforts 
to found schools. Influence of public schools. Effect of the 



Contents. xxix 

civil war. Action of Indiana Synod. Commissioners ap- 
pointed. The school located at Lincoln. The charter. En- 
dowment. The building. The first faculty. Dr. Freeman's 
presidency. Dr. Bowdon his successor. Death of Dr. Bow- 
don. Dr. McGlumphy made president. Law and theological 
departments. Losses and difficulties. Resignation of Dr. 
McGlumplrv. Graduates. Standard of scholarship. Pro- 
fessors. Trustees. Endowing agents. Work of the Univer- 
sity. A new faculty. List of teachers and professors. Value 
of property. Trinity University. Compromise for the sake 
of concentration. Origin of Trinity University. Points com- 
peting for the location. Tehuacana selected. Dr. Beeson 
president. Opening of the school. Wild lands as en- 
dowment Buildings. The first catalogue. Dr. Beeson's res- 
ignation. Death of Dr. McLesky, his successor. L. A.Johnson 
elected president. Importance of Trinity University. E. B. 
Crisman, endowing agent. Valuable work done by this institu- 
tion. The scholarship halter, 5 2 7~554 



CHAPTER XLVI. 
OTHER SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES. 

The spirit of education among Cumberland Presbyterians. Our 
pioneer schools. Reports and resolutions adopted by the Gen- 
eral Assembly. A graded system recommended. Warnings 
against the multiplication of schools. Number of schools in 
1S49. In 1S56. List of colleges in 1S60. Effect of the war. 
McGee College. Greeneville Seminary for Young Ladies. 
Greenwood Seminary. Union Female College. Cumberland 
Female College. Bethel College. Cane Hill College. Ward's 
Seminary. Spring Hill Institute. London High School. 
Educational work in Missouri. Reflections on the evils of 
cheap scholarships, 555 — 576 

CHAPTER XLVII. 

PUBLICATION, NEWSPAPERS, REVISION, AND TEM- 
PERANCE. 

Publication. Use of the printing press The first edition of the 
Confession Plan of Cumberland College. Ewing's lectures. 



xxx Contents. 

Hymn-book committee. Publishing Association. The Louis- 
ville Board. Dr. Bird president, agent, and editor. Suc- 
ceeded by Le Roy Woods. Jesse Anderson, Woods' suc- 
cessor. Work done at Louisville. Committee of Publication 
at Nashville. W. S. Langdon, general agent. The board 
chartered. Loans and donations. Work transferred to Pitts- 
burg. S. T. Stewart, agent. Re-organization of the board at 
Nashville. J. C. Provine, book editor and publishing agent. 
W. E. Dunaway, agent. T. C. Blake, financial agent. M. B. 
DeWitt, financial agent and book editor. Purchase of the 
Sunday- School Gem and Theological Medium. Consolidation of 
church papers. Sundaj^-school publications. T. C. Blake, 
business manager, 1S74-7S. J. M. Gaut, 1878-80. T. M. 
Hurst, i88o-'86. Jno. D. Wilson, 1886. Financial struggles. 
Efforts to secure a church history. A digest. Hymn and 
tune book. Dr. W. E. Ward. List of members of the board. 
Newspapers. Banner of Peace. Church papers in Pennsyl- 
vania. Cu7iibcrland Presbyterian Pulpit. The Ariz. The 
Texas Presbyterian. Texas Cumberland Presbyterian. 
Texas Observer. The Watchman and Evangelist. Papers 
in Missouri and Illinois. The Ladies' 1 Pearl. The Pacific 
Observer. The Theological Medium. Revision of the Con- 
fession of Faith, 1S53-1SS3. Faults of our first Confession. 
Action in 1852. Committee on Revision, 1853. Its report dis- 
cussed and rejected, 1S54. Unsuccessful efforts to revise the 
Form of Government, t867-"74. History of the new Confession 
of Faith. Improvements and defects. John L. Dillard's testi- 
mony. Temperance. Action of Elk Presbytery, 1S16. Po- 
sition of church papers. Le Roy Woods in the Indiana 
legislature, 1855. Temperance deliverances by the General 
Assembly. David Lowry's testimony. Anecdote of J. M. 
Berry, S77~ 6o 9 



CHAPTER XLVIII. 

NEW FIELDS— EVANGELISTS— PROGRESS— RE- 
FLECTIONS. 

Inadequate Home Mission funds. Organization of Rocky Mount- 
ain Presbytery. Colorado. Colorado Springs. Pueblo. Visit 
of J. Cal Littrell to New Mexico. Nebraska. Indian diffi- 



Contents. xxxi 

culties. Overland Express Companies. R. S. Reed's account 
of the work in Nebraska City and elsewhere. Another ac- 
count. Formation of Nebraska Presbytery Nebraska statistics. 
Washington Territory. H. W. Eagan at Walla Walla. A. 
W. Sweeny's record of the work. Statistics. Evangelists. 
R, G. Pearson and Dixon C. Williams. Anecdote of R. J. 
Sims. Our first evangelist. Lay evangelists. Evangelistic 
work among the Choctaws. A. P. Stewart. An old preach- 
er's estimate of Dixon C. Williams. Our denominational prog- 
ress. Increase in numbers. Lack of candidates for the ministry. 
"Heresy of the pocket." Regular pastors. Theological school. 
Comparison with Presbyterians. John L. Dillard's view. De- 
cline in spirituality. General reflections. The author's unre- 
corded impressions. Cumberland Presbyterian doctrine in the 
Presbyterian church. The mission of our church. Our debt 
to the Presbyterian church, 610-626 



CHAPTER XLIX. 

ANECDOTES. 

Sources from which these anecdotes are derived. Anecdote of 
Mrs. Samuel King. A timely arrival. A quarrel settled by a 
song. Conquered by kindness. Through head and heart. 
Tardiness cured. " The root of the matter." Anecdote of 
R. D. Morrow. Ruling passion strong in death. Comfort 
through faithfulness. Anecdote of F. M. Fincher. A Mis- 
souri camp-meeting. A barn meeting. A trial and a triumph. 
Another dancing incident. A war incident. A case of fast- 
ing and prayer. A gainsayer converted. A band of rowdies 
conquered. The key-stone of the arch. A Presbyterian elder 
convinced. A Christmas party. Two cases contrasted. A 
defeat changed to victory. A mother's prayers. A Jew con- 
verted. L. C. Ransom's discipline. Presentiment of death, 627-644 



LIST OF ENGRAVINGS. 



PAGE. 



Portrait of Rev. Finis Ewing, . . Frontispiece. 

Map, Facing i 

Portraits of Rev. Thomas Calhoun, Rev. Robert 

DONNELL, AND Rev. R. D. MORROW, D.D., . . . . " 96 

Portraits of Rev. F. R. Cossitt, D.D., Rev. A. M. 

Bryan, D.D., and Rev. Milton Bird, D.D., ... " 241 

Portraits of Rev. R. O. Watkins, Rev. Reuben 

Burrow, D.D., and Rev. J. B. Logan, D.D., ..." 368 



Portraits of Rev. Richard Beard, D.D., Rev. A. J. 

Baird, D.D., and Rev. S. G. Burney, D.D., ... " 464 



Portrait of Rev. John Morgan in Silhouette ... " 529 
(xxxii) 



FIRST PERIOD. 



CHAPTER I. 



" "'*-."' 



STATE OF THE COUNTRY. 

In the woodlands rang their axes, 
Smoked their towns in all the valleys. 

— Hiawatha. 

T^HE country called Cumberland on the accompanying map 
lay partly in Tennessee and partly in Kentucky. Its south- 
ern boundary was the dividing ridge between Cumberland and 
Duck rivers, in Tennessee; its northern boundary was the Green 
River, in Kentucky. When the Presbyterian church divided one 
of its large presbyteries, assigning one portion thereof to Cumber- 
land, it gave the name of the country to the new presbytery. 
When this presbytery was engaged in exciting controversies with 
Kentucky Synod about the revival of 1800, the people called the 
revival party " Cumberland Presbyterians. " When a new church 
grew out of the revival party, the name which the people had 
already given was neither repudiated nor formally adopted, but it 
clung to the new organization. The map belongs to a period a 
little earlier than the great revival of 1800. The shade lines 
include the white settlements, while all the rest of Tennessee and 
Kentucky was claimed by Indians. 

There was constant warfare with these savages. No treaty 
could bind them. To this day, Indians claim that a treaty with 
their chiefs does not bind any one except the individuals who sign 
the treaty. Lands bought from them were still claimed by those 
who did not sign the deed — claimed and fought for, too. Hence, 
all these white settlers were soldiers. Men carried guns with them 

(1) 



2 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period i. 

to church. When two men met and stopped to talk, they stood 
back to back, to watch both directions for the lurking Indian. 

Men still wore hunting-shirts and moccasins. They still wore 
a belt in which were carried a large knife and a hatchet. 

Their skill with the rifle was unsurpassed, but they reserved 
their display of it for living heads. At a later day, when powder 
and ball were not so precious, it is said they would throw up two 
apples and put a hole through both of them, with one bullet, when 
they crossed each other's path in the air. 

There were men and women, too, in all the settlements, who 
had been scalped by the Indians and left for dead, but had after- 
ward got well, and lived to pay back the debt of blood. 

Two such, who afterward were actors in the great revival, were 
described to me by an aged member of their, family long ago. 
Their father was named Daviess, uncle of the Joe Daviess for whom 
Daviess County (Kentucky) was named. He had built his house a 
little distance from the fort which then stood at Gilmore's Iyick, in 
Kentucky. The Indians surprised him at night, and took his two 
little children, son and daughter, prisoners. He escaped in his 
night-clothes, and with his utmost speed ran to the fort. 

Colonel Donnelson, of Cumberland, was then visiting the fort. 
When he saw Daviess coming in his night clothing, he knew too 
well what that meant. He sprang instantly to his rifle, calling on 
the men in the fort to join him. Before Daviess had time to tell 
the whole story, they were all in hot pursuit, Daviess still in his 
robe de nuit. Donnelson knew that if the Indians discovered their 
pursuers they would instantly kill the prisoners, so he and his com- 
rades tried to slip up on them. The barking of a dog gave the 
savages warning, and instantly they killed, as they supposed, and 
scalped the two children. The baby girl was taken by the heels 
and dashed against a sapling, her scalp was torn off, and the Indians 
fled. Colonel Donnelson took off his own shirt, and bound up the 
wounds of these children; and, though they suffered long, they 
ultimately recovered. There were, at that day, many such people 
among the sons of Cumberland and Kentucky. 

All the women knew how to shoot, and not only knew how, 
but most of them had put their knowledge to practical use in self- 



Chapter I.] STATE OF THE COUNTRY. 3 

defense. The memoir of Mrs. Margaret Hess, one of the early 
Cumberland Presbyterians, who lived to great age, tells how her 
mother and other ladies used their rifles in three different bloody 
struggles against the Indians. Wounded women were no uncom- 
mon thing in these settlements. 

All the first generation of our preachers had been in the Indian 
wars. People who had been prisoners among the Indians, and 
afterward either escaped or were ransomed, entered into the general 
mass of material out of which the Cumberland Presbyterian church 
grew. Colonel Joe Brown, who was a Cumberland Presbyterian 
preacher, had for a whole year been a prisoner in the hands of the 
Indians. Nor was the schooling of these pioneers confined to fight- 
ing Indians. Privations and hardships helped to sharpen their wits. 
The first generation of children were. brought up without u store 
goods. ' ' There were no shoes. All the people, men and women, 
wore moccasins made of untanned hides. Dresses were made of 
thread spun from buffalo wool for the filling, and the lint of the 
wild nettle for the chain. x There were no steamboats, or railroads, 
or steam factories, then, in the world. As to these settlements on 
the border, there were no stores, no mails, no good wagon roads, 
only blazed pathways. All the books or other luxuries they owned 
had been carried on pack-horses over the mountains, through the 
wilderness. Salt was worth sixteen dollars per bushel. Iron was 
equally dear. The country was nearly without trade or money. 
There was no South then, to buy mules and hogs. That South 
belonged, in part, to the Indians, and, in part, to the Spanish. 
There were no white settlements in what is now West Tennessee. 
The buffalo grazed quietly where Memphis now stands. 

The only possibility for any trade at all was either by pack- 
horses to Philadelphia, or by flatboats to New Orleans. The latter 
avenue was not always open, whimsical Spaniards closing it some- 
times, and always, when it was open, charging an enormous toll on 
every flatboat These flatboats could not be brought back. The 
traders sold them for fuel, and walked back through the Indian 
country. Forty years ago these old boatmen abounded both in 
Tennessee and Kentucky, and the stories of their adventures held 

1 Life of Mrs. Hess. 



4 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period i. 

many a group of children listening around the happy hearth-stones 
in these then peaceful and prosperous homes. 

One incident, given in a manuscript history of the Presbyterian 
church in East Tennessee, 1 illustrates the mail facilities. Union 
Presbytery was about issuing a circular letter to its churches, when 
it received, for the first time, a copy of a circular letter issued by 
the General Assembly on the same subject more than two years 
before. 

J This MS. was written by R. B. McMullen, D.D., and was loaned me by J. H. 
Bryson, D.D., of Huntsville, Ala. It is a very valuable MS. What a pity we have 
not a history of the Presbyterian church in the rest of the State ! 



Chapter II.] LITERATURE AND RELIGION. 



CHAPTER II. 



LITERATURE AND RELIGION. 

"By heaven, and not a master taught ! " — Poj>e. 

" His passage lies across the brink 
Of many a threatening wave, 
And hell expects to see him sink, 
But Jesus lives to save." 

THERE have been highly educated men who could not read. 
In times and countries where education in the schools was 
impossible, strong native intellects learned from men, from events, 
from nature. Daniel Boone wrote, u Cilled a bar," and perhaps 
never in his life knew any better orthography; but if a profound 
knowledge of military strategy, if lightning-like grasp of resources 
for military emergencies, if a far-seeing anticipation of the enemy's 
movements, whether that enemy were Indian, French, or English, 
if an intellect that never made a mistake in any of the myriad mil- 
itary emergencies in which it was called to act, entitle a man to 
rank high among thinkers, then very few of the sons of West Point 
have ever been his equals. 

This education without books, so common among a people who 
had no possible chance of schooling in the regular way, is never 
found at all in a country where schools are accessible to everybody. 
The thriftless laziness which will not avail itself of all the resources 
in reach, neither in old countries nor new ones, ever rises to the 
rank of a thinker. All the first settlements in Kentucky and Ten- 
nessee were foi a while without schools. Circumstances made 
schools impossible. There were very few books. Among the 
treasures packed on horseback through the wilderness was the 
family Bible. It made the reading book. There were no novels. 
A few families had a tear-blotted copy of the Sacred League and 
Covenant, handed down for generations. 

The first school in Cumberland was opened in Craighead's church, 



6 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period i. 

six miles from Nashville. It was called Spring Hill Academy, and 
was taught by a Presbyterian minister. 1 Among its early pupils 
were Finis Ewing, Samuel King, Samuel McSpeddin, and Robert 
Bell, all of them Cumberland Presbyterian ministers at a later day. 

There is, it is said, a stone situated in the three States of Vir- 
ginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee. A man seated on that 
stone on Sabbath morning, June, 1773, might have seen below 
him in the valley the first meeting-house ever erected on the soil of 
Tennessee. 2 That church was erected by that hardy and glorious 
race, the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians. The church was of logs, 40 by 
80 feet. It was covered with clapboards. These Scotch-Irish set- 
tlers had profound respect for the Sabbath. Peep into their cabins. 
Every child is in its seat, reciting the catechism. This is that race 
of whom the Irishman said, that when the potato crop failed ( l they 
lived on the Shorter Catechism and the Sabbath. " Peep into their 
cabins later in the morning. The male members, and in some 
cases the female members also, are taking down their rifles, prepar- 
atory to starting to church. 

One hundred and thirty-eight heads of families had united in 
calling the Rev. Charles Cummings to come and settle among them 
as their pastor. 3 He ministered to these same people thirty-nine 
years. This man Cummings was the first man who ever preached 
in what is now Tennessee. His first years in this wild frontier 
were tracked with the blood of Indian battles. He fought often, 
and had many narrow escapes. 

Farther north, in Kentucky, the first preacher was also a Pres- 
byterian. The father of "Tippecanoe Joe Daviess " went back to 
his old home in Virginia after a preacher, and brought back with 
him the Rev. David Rice. He gave Mr. Rice the hire of a negro 
woman for two years, and helped build him a cabin. 4 But it 
appears from Dr. Davidson's history that Rice received very poor 
compensation for his services in after years. 

1 This minister was the Rev. Dr. Brooks. For reasons unknown to the writer 
his name never appeared on the roll of the Kentucky Synod, in whose bounds he 
lived. 

2 MS. History of Presbyterian church in East Tennessee, by Dr. McMullen. 

3 Dr. McMullen's MS., p. 6. 
* Memoir of Mrs. Hess. 



Chapter II.] LITERATURE AND . RELIGION. 7 

The Rev. Thomas B. Craighead was the first pastor who set- 
tled in Cumberland; though his first steps were not cold before 
the Rev. Benjamin Ogden, of the Methodist church, was proclaim- 
ing free salvation on the banks of the Cumberland River. 

In this sketch of preachers and congregations my inquiries run 
in Presbyterian channels, since our church was of Presbyterian par- 
entage. . It would be obiter dictum, if I discussed other churches. 

Orthodoxy, the catechism, a deathless attachment to principles 
and to ecclesiastical rights, a holy horror of any innovations on the 
traditional methods of work, singing Rouse's Psalms, and hearing 
sermons three hours long on election, made up the religion of many 
among the best citizens. 

There seems to have been no great amount of dishonesty. The 
Nashville jail was a log cabin, fourteen feet square. But after the 
revolution, mainly through the influence of the French soldiers 
who had aided us in that struggle, infidelity swept over all this 
western frontier, and threatened for a while to carry all the popu- 
lation. All the historians are agreed in their testimony to this vast 
prevalence of infidelity. Some say nine tenths of the people were 
infidels. The general lack of regular preaching, and the bad char- 
acter of many who did preach, helped to sweep faith away from the 
country. According to the testimony of the Rev. David Rice, the 
first Presbyterian minister who settled in Kentucky, 1 and of the 
Rev. Dr. Davidson, the historian of the Presbyterian church in that 
State, most of the ministers of that church, in Rice's day, were bad 
men. Drunkenness, wrangling, licentiousness, and heresy brought 
the most of them to grief sooner or later. 2 

The lives of unconverted preachers, elders, and members make 
a woful chapter in the history of this period. Of the church mem- 
bers in this country who, after being in the church for years, finally 
discovered their ruined condition, and made a profession of relig- 
ion, there are several names whose prominence in our history justifies 
their introduction here. They are Richard King, Elder Hutchin- 
son, Robert Guthrie, Samuel McSpeddin, Finis Bwing, together 
with their wives, and very many others. 

The case of Richard King is interesting. He had been edu- 

1 Memoir of Mrs. Hess. 2 Davidson's Hist., pp. 103, 129, 130. 



8 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period i. 

cated for the ministry. His father, Robert King, was an elder in 
the Presbyterian chnrch, and one of those who opposed the revival. 
His brother, Samuel King, was he who made one of the three to 
organize our first presbytery. Although "Rich" had been edu- 
cated for the ministry, he would not preach; but poor Sam, who 
had no education, when he felt that he was called of God to preach 
the gospel, would pray, u O Lord, send Rich!" 

Men picked out and educated for the ministry, and thrust into 
the holy office without any conscious internal call to the work, 
made one of the troubles between Old Side and New Side in 1741. 
Dr. Charles Hodge's defense of Old Side views on this subject is a 
chapter which his reputation could easily spare from his writings. 

The Rev. Samuel McSpeddin's testimony about the kind of 
preaching in the Presbyterian pulpits of that day is given at length 
in Dr. Cossitt's Life of Bwing. The substance of it is that they 
never said any thing to rouse the conscience; that they never dis- 
cussed the new birth, or any conscious experience in grace; that 
people who by any means became uneasy about their religious 
state, and went to their pastors for help, were told that if they had 
been baptized, and believed that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, 
they need not trouble themselves about any conscious experience. 

McSpeddin and Ewing both are specially severe on Craighead's 
preaching. Nor are these strictures by Cumberland Presbyterians 
any more severe than some occasionally found in Davidson's history 
of his own church. One of Craighead's sayings, handed down by 
tradition, was, "I would not give this old handkerchief for all the 
experimental religion in the world. ' ' 

A curious statement is made by the Rev. James McGready, who 
was a Presbyterian minister in what is now Logan County, Ken- 
tucky, about one of the preachers of his own presbytery. It is that 
this preacher (the Rev. James Balch) in his sermons ridiculed the 
doctrines of faith, of repentance, and of regeneration. And 
although this preacher was finally brought to trial * for his her- 
esies, it was not till he spent years traveling among the churches 

1 He had been tried and suspended before he came to Kentucky, and was restored 
to the ministry by a different presbytery without the consent of his own presbytery. 
He was a disturber of the peace wherever he went. — Dr. McMullen's "MS. 



Chapter II.] LITERATURE AND RELIGION. 9 

of Cumberland, where the great revival prevailed, and doing his 
utmost to oppose the revival and check its progress. Nor were 
his efforts without success in some places. 

The Rev. James McGready had entered the ministry without 
any religion. God led him to see his ruined condition, and he 
sought and found conscious salvation. He was then in Pennsyl- 
vania, but soon went to North Carolina. His preaching there was 
as much changed as he was himself. It aroused the conscience; it 
awakened unconverted church members; it was used of God to 
promote precious revivals of religion. These revivals in North 
Carolina were bitterly opposed by church members, and McGready 
was fiercely persecuted, even to the extent of endangering his life. 
There was also there, as there was at a later day in Cumberland, a 
strong revival party which sympathized with him, and worked 
heartily in his meetings. 

A large number of McGready' s North Carolina neighbors moved 
to Cumberland. Through their solicitations, in 1796, he changed 
his field of labor, and took charge of these scattered sheep in the 
wilderness. There were three small congregations to which he 
ministered, whose only preaching before his arrival had been from 
such men as Craighead and Balch. These churches were called 
Red River, Gasper River, and Muddy River, located in what is 
now Logan County, Kentucky. It was a strange contrast, these 
dead preachers and McGready. The result of his introduction into 
this mass of dead formalism belongs to the next chapter. His 
churches were located in the country then called Cumberland, but 
called at a later day the Cumberland and Green River Settlements. 
" Cumberland " was partly in Kentucky, but when this history 
opens the dividing line between the two States had not been run. 
Tennessee's first capital was east of the mountains. 



io Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period i. 



CHAPTER III. 



THE GREAT REVIVAL, i 

Why should we crave a hallowed spot ? 
An altar is in each man's cot. 

— Wordsworth. 

WHAT share other churches had in the beginning and prog- 
ress of that work of grace known as the revival of 1800, is 
not here discussed. Our origin was in the revival in the Presbyte- 
rian church. That revival had some very striking antecedents. 
It began in 1797. The year preceding its beginning was marked 
beyond all others for official calls to fasting and prayer by presby- 
teries, synods, and General Assembly — fasting and prayer for the 
outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Ohio Presbytery held a monthly 
fast-day all through the year 1796, to pray for a revival. The 
Synod of the Carolinas had appointed a synodical fast -day, in 
which all its congregations were to pray for the outpouring of the 
Holy Spirit. A large number of the congregations in western 
Pennsylvania had drawn up written covenants to pray for a revival. 
Accounts of these covenants and their precious fruits were after- 
ward published in the Western Missionary Magazine. It is an 
item of interest to Cumberland Presbyterians that the very congre- 
gations which afterward called for our preaching were among those 
who joined in these solemn covenants to pray for a revival. The 
General Assembly also appointed a fast-day to be observed in all its 
churches — repentance, humiliation, and prayer for the outpouring 
of the Holy Spirit being specially mentioned. McGready drew up 
a very solemn covenant for his congregations. Every Saturday 
evening, every Sunday morning, and one whole Sabbath of each 
month, for a year, were to be observed as a season of special prayer 

1 McGready, Hodge, Ewing, Calhoun, Smith, Speer, Foote, and others, are my 
authorities for this chapter. 



Chapter III.] THE GREAT REVIVAL. II 

for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Logan County, Kentucky, 
and throughout the world. To this covenant he obtained the sig- 
natures of his church members. 

It was not to sensational evangelists, but to God's holy Spirit 
that our spiritual ancestors in the Presbyterian church looked for 
deliverance from the triumphant infidelity of the times. Nor did 
they look in vain. In Gasper River congregation, at McGready' s 
regular sacramental meeting, in May, 1797, the grand work began. 
All through the preceding year McGready' s church members had 
been coming to him about their spiritual condition. His preach- 
ing had opened their eyes to the fact that they were resting on a 
false hope. Finally, one of these — a lady — found the sure Rock, 
and was so filled with God's Spirit that she could no longer sit 
silent at home while so many of her friends were in the prison 
from which she had just escaped. She immediately visited her 
neighbors from house to house, and awakened among them a deep 
interest about their souls. \ 

The next year a more general awakening occurred. After a 
solemn sacramental service in July, the profound claims of immor- 
tality followed the people to their homes. Secular business was 
forgotten, and men under deep conviction spent the days alone in 
the woods, weeping and praying. Groups that met in the houses 
talked of eternity, and wept together over their ruined condition. 
Thus for weeks, while there was no public preaching, God's Spirit 
was at work in the private houses. Godless church members talked 
together about the startling discoveries which they had made of 
their unconverted state. 

• In September, 1798, McGready held his sacramental meeting at 
Muddy River. God's power was there also. All over the field to 
which McGready ministered the home work became general. Sur- 
passing any thing of the sort in all history was this revival without 
preaching, without public meetings, without any high pressure 
methods. The houses and the deep forests of Logan County rang 
with the prayers of souls in distress. While so many awakened 
souls were in solemn prayer, it is remarkable that deliverance was to 
most of them delayed. One who lived among them at that time has 
left his testimony, that in going from house to house all through 



12 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period i. 

McGready's congregations lie heard only one theme talked of. If 
he came upon a group of old people, they were weeping and talk- 
ing about their souls. If he encountered the young people, either 
singly or in groups, they were in tears, and spoke only about their 
souls' salvation. 

The next year (1799) the interest was still deeper, especially in 
Gasper congregation, but this year more of the burdened souls 
found salvation. The sacramental meeting was a time of victory 
to some. At this meeting began what was considered so strange 
then, though it had often occurred in the revivals of former gener- 
ations. Men under overwhelming convictions fell to the floor, and 
though they were entirely conscious, as they afterward testified, yet 
they remained prostrate and motionless for hours. When they rose, 
it was with the shouts of victory on their tongues. This strange 
exercise drew vast crowds to McGready's meetings. A family who 
had recently moved to Kentucky from North Carolina heard of 
these strange things, and heard, also, that a sacramental meeting 
was soon to occur. Not having friends near the place of meeting, 
they resolved to go in their wagons and camp beside them, as they 
had done in their journey from North Carolina. This they did. 
At the next sacramental meeting their example was followed by 
several families, and most of the converts of that meeting were the 
campers. This meeting was at Red River, in Kentucky. 

It is rather strange that mere conjectural accounts of the origin 
of camp-meetings should be extensively published, when we have 
the most reliable accounts from eye-witnesses. One of these 
accounts was written at the time by Captain Wallace Estill, who 
then lived in Kentucky, and was present at all these meetings. 
While he gives the date of the meeting at Gasper, soon to be 
described, he does not give the date of this Red River meeting, 
though he speaks of it. There is some conflict of authorities about 
the date of this meeting. The Rev. John McGee, of the Meth- 
odist church, who was present, places it in 1799, and there is tradi- 
tional confirmation of this date. Smith, Estill, and others place it 
in 1800, with circumstantial confirmation. 1 

*John McGee's statements were written from memory, twenty years after the 
events, and contain internal proofs of inaccuracy in other matters. 



Chapter III.] THE GREAT REVIVAL. 13 

This by some people, John McGee among them, is called the 
first camp-meeting in Christendom. It was at least the forerunner 
of the first camp - meeting, for the good results which McGready 
saw follow this spontaneous camp - meeting caused him to publish 
far and near that his sacramental meeting at Gasper, in July, 1800, 
would be a camp-meeting. The public responded fully, and campers 
with their wagons encircled all the place when the meeting began. 
This meeting at Gasper was the first meeting in Christendom that 
was appointed and inte7ided for a camp-meeting. Estill calls this 
the first camp-meeting in Christendom. The grand revival flame 
kindled Saturday, while some pious women were talking about 
religion. It soon spread through all the gathered hosts. Among 
those attending this meeting at Gasper were several members of 
Shiloh church, Sumner County, Tennessee. The Rev. William 
Hodge, their pastor, who was a fast friend of the revival, was also 
present. At this meeting five of the regular members of Shiloh 
congregation became convinced that they were in an unconverted 
state, and, after a' bitter struggle, made a profession of religion. 

The elder brother of the Rev. Samuel King was one of these five 
members. The story of his conversion as told by the widow of the 
Rev. J. M. McMurray, Mrs. Elizabeth McMurray, of Lebanon, Ten- 
nessee, whose family were akin to the Kings, is here given. The 
father of this Richard King (Robert King) was an elder in the 
Shiloh congregation, and a Presbyterian after the straightest pat- 
tern. Before this Gasper River meeting, some members of the 
Shiloh church, while visiting one of McGready' s sacramental 
meetings, had been converted, and had returned home shouting 
the praises of God. Robert King said it was all ' ' fox-fire. " "I'll 
send Rich; they can't fool Rich." It will be remembered that 
( ' Rich ' ' was not only a member of the church, but had been edu- 
cated for the ministry. It was to this grand meeting at Gasper, 
in 1800, that Rich was sent. It was there that he discovered the 
necessity of a change to which he had hitherto been a stranger. It 
was there, too, that his soul was set at liberty. 

When he and the other Shiloh people returned from Gasper and 
met their friends, they rushed into their arms, shouting and telling 
what wonderful things God had done for their souls. Fire in dry 



14 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period i. 

stubble were these returned converts among their neighbors. The 
private houses rang with the cries of poor sinners who were now 
awakened to their ruined condition. Nor were their soul struggles 
protracted to the extent that others had been the previous year in 
McGready's field. Shouts of new converts were soon heard in 
these pioneer cabins. A nephew of Richard King, a little boy, 
was among those who were stricken down under deep conviction 
when all these rejoicing converts returned from the Gasper meet- 
ing. His friends sent for his grandfather, Robert King. Here was 
a situation for the old elder. His neighbors carried away with 
" fox-fire; " "Rich," whom he had relied on to ferret out the delu- 
sion, now carried away with it like the rest; and worse still, he 
himself sent for to play revivalist, and instruct a prostrate victim 
of the delusion. He, the anti-revivalist, Robert King! He took 
his lancet and his camphor, and went to the boy's relief, but a bet- 
ter Physician had preceded him. On his arrival he found the boy 
shouting the praises of God. 

There were twenty conversions in the Shiloh neighborhood after 
the return of "Rich" King before there was a single sermon 
preached. Then they had a camp-meeting, and there were one 
hundred conversions: this, too, in that sparsely settled region. 

The first camp-meetings were without tents or. other shelter 
except the wagons. Later, people built double log-cabins, which 
were still called tents, for their families and visitors. So far as 
possible people cooked the provisions before they left home, and 
they moved to camps expecting to remain during the meeting. 
All who attended the camp-meeting were fed freely. Campers 
would go out into the crowd and make a public invitation for all 
to come and eat. The camps were supplied with straw, both on 
the ground and on the bed scaffolds. One tent was used by the 
ladies, and another by the gentlemen. A field of grain with a 
stream of water in it was secured, and the horses of the visitors 
were turned into it. A vast shelter covered with boards was built 
and seated for a preaching place. This, too, had an ample supply 
of clean straw for a floor. In the intervals between public services 
it was their universal custom to go alone, or in small groups, to 
secret prayer in the adjacent forest. The north and south line 



Chapter III.] THE GREAT REVIVAL. 15 

divided the grounds for retirement and prayer, and gentlemen were 
not allowed to go upon the ladies' grounds. 

In all the early days, before railroads came along, these meet- 
ings were not only as orderly as any other kind of meetings, but 
they were generally seasons of unparalleled solemnity and une- 
qualed moral grandeur. A Scotch traveler, who had seen most of 
the countries of the world, has left his written testimony that he 
had nowhere seen any thing to equal the moral grandeur of the 
great camp-meeting. No correct idea of these early camp-meet- 
ings can be formed from the so-called camp-meetings of modern 
times. They belong to a different economy. I have seen both, and 
I recognize in the modern one scarcely one single feature of those 
early gatherings of a pioneer people to worship God. 

Although Craighead opposed the revival, his elders did not; and 
they determined to have a camp - meeting, and have some of the 
revival preachers attend it. They did so, and a precious meeting 
it proved to be; but the pastor gave it the cold shoulder. 1 This 
meeting was at the church near Nashville, in which Dr. Brooks, 
mentioned heretofore, was teaching a school. 

Camp-meetings now became the order of the day. The Meth- 
odists especially took them up, and had grand victories in many of 
their meetings. Tennessee and Kentucky were transformed. 

The dear old Beech church, in Sumner County, Tennessee, had 
that staunch friend of the revival, the Rev. William McGee, for its 
pastor. Its camp - meetings furnished surpassing displays of the 
Holy Spirit's power. 

God's Spirit used the distant visitors to these camp-meetings to 
spread the revival, not only throughout Tennessee and Kentucky, 
but many other States. Foote's History of North Carolina 2 and his 
History of Virginia give us thrilling accounts of revivals started in 
these two States by people just returned fromMcGready's meetings. 

Dr. Speer 3 tells us of revivals similarly started in western Penn- 
sylvania. The Rev. James Gallagher, of the Presbyterian church, 
gives a most impressive account of its spread into East Tennessee. 



1 Several of his hard sayings on that occasion are preserved in the Kirkpatrick 
MSS., and in others. 

2 Foote's North Carolina, pp. 64-73. 3 Speer, Rev., 1800, pp. 24, 43, 48, 84. 



1 6 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period I. 

He says its awful solemnity made people think the day of judg- 
ment was at hand. * 

An old claim, thoroughly refuted when first published, 2 has been 
recently revived. It is that the revival in McGreadf s churches was 
due to the preaching of John McGee, a Methodist. The sole foun- 
dation for this claim is that John McGee visited McGready's 
churches in 1799, and preached in them. McGee himself says his 
first visit to McGready's churches was in 1799. 3 

But the revival in McGready's churches began in 1797, before 
McGee moved away from North Carolina, and, at the meeting which 
McGee first visited, it was in full power before he ever took any 
part. 

No one denies that both Methodists and Baptists had grand re- 
vivals about this period; but the claim that the particular revival 
out of which our church sprang originated with the Methodists has 
not the shadow of a foundation. The evidence on which the histo- 
ry usually given by our church rests is all that could be desired. 
The testimony of the pastor and various other actors in these events, 
all published right at the time, and in the midst of the people where 
these events occurred, remained unchallenged for twenty years. 
To this must be added the testimony of the several church judica- 
tures in which these events became the theme of angry discussions. 
Official records of presbytery, synod, and Assembly speak of the re- 
vival which originated under McGready's preaching. Several offi- 
cial circulars 4 sent out by the actors in these events give the same 
history. 

When the Rev. James Smith published his history, our General 
Assembly appointed a committee of eleven persons, most of whom 
had been eye witnesses of these great events, to examine into its 
accuracy. Their report indorses the accuracy of this portion of 
the history in every particular. 5 

1 Western Sketch Book. 2 Revivalist, Feb. 13, 1833. 

3 There is good reason to believe that he was wrong in the date. He describes 
events which seem to belong to the next year. He wrote from memory long after 
the events. 

4 See appendix to Life and Times of Ewing, Dr. Frizzell's semi-centennial pam- 
phlet, and Revivalist, 1832, for these circulars. 

5 Assembly Minutes; Vol. I., p. 117, et seq. 






Chapter III,] THE GREAT REVIVAL. 17 

Besides all this, John McGee set up no such claim. He knew 
better. Even his letter to Douglass, out of which men tried, after 
he was dead, to establish such a claim, itself disproves this claim. 
There were precious revivals among Presbyterians before the Meth- 
odist church was born. 

There is in my possession a manuscript autobiography of the 
Rev. Robert Bell. He was present at all McGready's sacramental 
meetings from 1797 to 1800. Among the things which occupy a 
prominent place in this autobiography is the trouble he had over 
the doctrine of reprobation. He was under deep conviction in 1799 
and 1800, but feared he was not one of the elect. The doctrine 
of a general atonement had never been preached in his hearing 
prior to his conversion, September, 1800. So far is it from being 
true that the doctrines preached in McGready's churches before 
the revival were Methodist doctrines, that many of McGready's 
people who regularly attended all his services, had never heard a 
general atonement preached in their lives. Robert Bell read and 
indorsed the Rev. James Smith's history of the great revival. 
We have a brief account of this great revival written by the Rev. 
Samuel McSpeddin. r He was an eye-witness. He says the revival 
began in Kentucky under McGready's preaching in 1797; that it 
extended in 1800 to Tennessee, and was heartily welcomed by the 
Methodists, who afterward became the chief agents for spreading 
it over all of Tennessee. He says the first Methodist preachers to 
aid in this revival work were John McGee, James Gwinn, and 
Bishop Asbury. Afterward McKendree came to this field, and, 
of course, entered heartily into the revival. 

McSpeddin calls attention to the fact that there was a Cane 
Ridge church in Tennessee, which had been confounded with the 
Cane Ridge in Bourbon County, Kentucky, where the New Lights 
originated; and this fact, perhaps, helped to create that long-lived 
error which represents u New Lights" and " Cumberlands " as the 
same. McSpeddin points out several other minor errors in the pub- 
lished histories. He says, as do all the historians, that McGready 
had revivals in North Carolina before he came to Kentucky; that 

1 See McSpeddin's papers, filed in Cumberland University Library; also Banner 
of Peace, September 8, and October 26, 1853. 
2 



1 8 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period i. 

soon after his arrival in Kentucky (1796), revivals began under his 
preaching there. He also says: "McGready was the great instru- 
ment, under God, of the commencement of the great revival, 
called the revival of 1800." 

McSpeddin says that Shiloh and DeSha's, so often mentioned in 
our early history as churches in Sumner County, Tennessee, were 
one and the same, and that Dry Fork church, in the same county, 
was composed of the revival party of both Hopewell and Shiloh. 
[See Banner of Peace, No. 15, Vol. xii.] 

There was a controversy between "Uncle" Joe Brown and 
McSpeddin about the dates in McSpeddin' s history, but the accu- 
racy of these dates was thoroughly and triumphantly established 
by McSpeddin and acknowledged by Brown. His dates make it 
almost certain that John McGee's first visit to McGready' s meet- 
ings was in 1800. One feature, however, of McGready' s meet- 
ings at a later day was clearly due to McGee, who ran through 
the church shouting and telling the people to shout, until he suc- 
ceeded in producing quite a tumult. The Presbyterians generally 
condemned shouting, and this feature of McGready' s meetings, 
after McGee's visits, was one of the grounds of their bitter com- 
plaints. So it is probable that the ' ' shouting, ' ' once so common, 
now so rare, among Cumberland Presbyterians was of Methodist 
parentage. 

It is amusing to read the Rev. Dr. Fergus Ferguson's account 
of the shouting by one of our good sisters at our General Assem- 
bly in 1874, when he and Dr. Morrison were on their visit to 
America. 1 It really seems, from his account, that he had never 
heard any such thing before, and did not know what it was. I 
wonder if the Methodists of Scotland never shout. 

It was, perhaps, through the brothers, John and William Mc- 
Gee — -one a Methodist and the other a Presbyterian — that what 
was called "the union" was accomplished. Before that "union" 
it was not at all customary for different denominations to commune 
together at the Lord's table or work together in meetings — least 
of all for Methodists and Presbyterians to commune together. 

1 From Glasgow to Springfield, by Fergus Ferguson, D.D. 



Chapter III.] THE GREAT REVIVAL. 19 

The history of ( ' tokens " I is a strange one. Dr. Blackburn, 
liberal and progressive as he was, refused to admit Joe Brown to 
the communion table because Brown had communed with the 
Cumberland Presbyterians. It was this which drove Brown out 
of the Presbyterian church. "Fencing the table" was a more 
rigid thing than any of our Baptist brethren now practice . in their 
" close communion. " 

( ' The union ' ' formed in the time of the McGees was nothing 
more than a written contract to commune together and hold meet- 
ings together — union meetings. 

' f J An explanation of what " tokens " were and what " fencing the table " was will 
be found in the another chapter. 



20 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period r. 



CHAPTER IV. 



THE REVIVAL A GENUINE WORK OF GOD'S SPIRIT. 

" He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire." 

NOT all so-called revivals are genuine. Was this one a gen- 
uine work of God? The testimonies here introduced are 
from that class of witnesses entitled to the greatest respect. They 
are conclusive, if human testimony can be conclusive in such a 
matter. 

The Rev. David Rice, who visited McGready's churches during 
the revival, preached a sermon before his synod in reference to this 
wonderful work. This sermon was preached in 1803. * He says: 

This revival has made its appearance in various places without any 
extraordinary means to produce it 

The revival appears to be granted in answer to prayer, and in con- 
firmation of that gracious truth that God has " not said to the house of 
Jacob, Seek ye me in vain," when he says he will be inquired of by the 
house of Israel to do it for them. 

As far as I can see, there appears to be in the subjects of this work 
a deep, heart humbling sense of the great unreasonableness, abomina- 
ble nature, pernicious effects, and deadly consequences of sin; and the 
absolute unworthiness in the sinful creature of the smallest crumb of 
mercy from the hand of a holy God Jesus Christ, and him cru- 
cified, appears to be the ALL IN ALL to the subjects of this revival 
and the creature nothing, and less than nothing. 

They seem to have a very deep and affecting sense of the worth of 
precious immortal souls, ardent love to them, and an agonizing con- 
cern for their conviction, conversion, and complete salvation 

Neighborhoods, noted for their vicious and profligate manners, are now 
as much noted for their piety and good order. 

Drunkards, profane swearers, liars, quarrelsome persons, etc., are 

remarkably reformed A number of families who had lived 

apparently without the fear of God, in folly and in vice, without any 

x Quoted from Dr. Speer. 



Chapter IV.] THE REVIVAL A GENUINE WORK. 21 

religious instruction or any proper government, are now reduced to 
order, and are daily joining in the worship of God, reading his word, 
singing his praises, and offering up their supplications to a Throne of 
Grace. 

Parents who seemed formerly to have little or no regard for the 
souls of their children, are now anxiously concerned for their salva- 
tion, are pleading for them, and endeavoring to lead them to Christ 
and train them up in the way of piety and virtue 

The subjects of this work appear to be very sensible of the necessity 
of sanctif cation as well as justification, and that without holiness no 
man can see the Lord; to be greatly desirous that they and all that 
name the name of Christ should depart from iniquity 

Now, I have given you my reasons for concluding the morning is 
co?ne, and that we are blessed with a real revival of the benign and 
heaven-born religion of Jesus Christ, which demands our grateful 
acknowledgements to God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. 

Five years later, when the revival preachers had been placed 
under the interdict of a commission of synod, this same David 
Rice again testifies : ' ' That we had a revival of the spirit and pow- 
er of Christianity 1 - among ns, I did, do, and ever shall, believe 
. . . but we sadly mismanaged it ; we have dashed it down and 
broken it to pieces. ' ' 

How far the Presbyterian church suffered from its treatment of 
the revival preachers, he and others of his comrades had begun 
keenly to feel, and have left us clear testimony. Dr. Davidson tries 
to lay the blame for this injury to the Presbyterian church, in Ken- 
tucky and Tennessee, on the revival. Mr. Rice knew where to lay 
it. He says, "We have not acted as wise master-builders who have 
no need to be ashamed." 2 

From the beginning of this work, in 1797, for a series of years 
the General Assembly of the Presbyterian church gave its testimo- 
ny to the precious fruits of this revival. In 1803, it adds to its 
former testimony many precious words about the revival in other 
parts of the field and then notices our field as follows: 

In many southern and western presbyteries revivals more extensive 
and of a more extraordinary nature have taken place. It would be 
easy for the Assembly to select some very remarkable instances of the 

1 Italics his. "Bishop's Memoir of Rice, p. 367. 



22, Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period i. 

triumphs of divine grace which were exhibited before them in the course 
of the very interesting narratives presented in the free conversation — 
instances of the most malignant opposers of vital piety being convinced 
and reconciled; of some learned, active, and conspicuous infidels be- 
coming signal monuments of that grace which they once despised; and 
various circumstances which display the holy efficacy of the gospel. 
.... In the course of the last year, there is reason to believe that sev- 
eral thousands within the bounds of the Presbyterian church have been 
brought to embrace the gospel of Christ The Assembly con- 
sider it worthy of particular attention, that most of the accounts of 
revivals communicated to them stated that the institution of praying 
societies, or special seasons of special prayer to God for the outpouring 
of the Spirit, preceded the remarkable displays of divine grace with 
which our land has been blessed. In most cases, preparatory to signal 
effusions of the Holy Spirit, the pious have been stirred up to cry fer- 
vently and importunately that God would appear to vindicate his own 
cause. The Assembly see in this a confirmation of the word of God, 
and an ample encouragement of the prayers and hopes of the pious for 
future and more extensive manifestations of the divine power. And 
they trust that the churches under their care, while they see cause of 
abundant thankfulness for this dispensation, will also perceive that it 
presents new motives to zeal and fervor in application to that throne of 
grace from which every good and perfect gift comeih. The Assembly 
also observe with great pleasure that the desire for spreading the gos- 
pel among the blacks and among the savage tribes on our borders has 
been rapidly increasing during the last year. The Assembly take 
notice of this circumstance with the more satisfaction, as it not only 
affords a pleasing presage of the spread of the gospel, but also furnishes 
agreeable evidence of the genuineness and the benign tendency of that 
spirit, which God has been pleased to pour out upon his people. On 
the whole, the assembly can not but declare with joy and with most 
cordial congratulations to the churches under their care, that the state 
and prospects of vital religion in our country are more favorable and 
encouraging than at any period within the last forty years. 

There was a long letter written by the Rev. George Baxter to 
Dr. A. Alexander, which I desire to introduce here. Dr. Baxter was 
for many years President of Washington College, in Virginia. At 
the time of his death he was Professor of Theology in the Union 
Theological Seminary, Virginia. He wrote from Kentucky, Jan- 
uary i, 1802. His statements, when published, were attacked by 
the anti-revival party. He defended them. Dr. Davidson says if 



Chapter IV.] THE REVIVAL A GENUINE WORK. 23 

he had lived long enough he would have corrected some of his 
statements. Well, it is not likely that he would have contradicted 
his testimony to facts. He says: 

I will just observe that the last summer is the fourth since the 
revival commenced in those places, and that it has been more remark- 
able than any of the preceding, not only for lively and fervent devo- 
tion among Christians, but also for awakenings and conversions among 
the careless; and it is worthy of notice that very few instances of 
apostasy have hitherto appeared. As I was not myself in the Cum- 
berland country, all I can say about it is from the testimony of others; 
but I was uniformly told by those who had been there, that their relig- 
ious assemblies were more solemn and the appearance of the work 
much greater than what had been in Kentucky. Any enthusiastic 
symptoms which might at first have attended the revival had greatly 
subsided, while the serious concern and engagedness of the people 
were visibly increased. 

Dr. Baxter then gives us many strong statements about the pre- 
cious fruits of the revival in Kentucky, where he was then visiting. 
He says : "In October I attended three sacraments ; at each there 
were supposed to be between four and five thousand people, and 
every thing was conducted with strict propriety."" Dr. Baxter 
takes up the charge of enthusiasm made against the revival and 
denies it. He says: 

Never have I seen more genuine marks of that humility which dis- 
claims the merits of its own duties, and looks to the Lord Jesus Christ 
as the only way of acceptance with God. I was indeed highly pleased 
to find that Christ was all in all in their religion as well as in the relig- 
ion of the gospel. Christians in their highest attainments seemed more 
sensible of their entire dependence upon divine grace, and it was truly 
affecting to hear with what agonizing anxiety awakened sinners 
inquired for Christ as the only physician who could give them any 
help. Those who call these things enthusiasm ought to tell us what 
they understand by the spirit of Christianity. In fact, sir, this revival 
operates as our Savior promised the Holy Spirit should when sent into 
the world — it convinces of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment, a 
strong confirmation, to my mind, both that the promise is divine and 
that this is a remarkable fulfillment of it. 

Again he says in the same letter: 

I think the revival in Kentucky among the most extraordinary that 
have ever visited the church of Christ, and, all things considered, pecul- 



24 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period i. 

iarly adapted to the circumstances of that country. Infidelity was tri- 
umphant and religion on the point of expiring. Something of an 
extraordinary nature seemed necessary to arrest the attention of giddy 
people, who were ready to conclude that Christianity was a fable and 
futurity a dream. The revival has done it. It has confounded infidel- 
ity and vice into silence, and brought numbers beyond calculation 
under serious impressions. 

Dr. Baxter, in a letter quoted in Davidson, p. 186, tells of the 
wonderful reformation in morals and manners and the general 
religious solemnity which the revival produced over all Kentucky. 
He says, ' ' I found Kentucky the most moral place I had ever 
seen." And this was in that same frontier where he tells us that 
only four years before infidelity had been triumphant. 

I am for the present excluding inside testimony. McGready and 
Hodge were actors in the revival, but the Rev. Gideon Blackburn 
ought to be accepted as good outside testimony. In 1804 ^ e wrote 
a long letter to a friend in Philadelphia, in which he describes 
what he had seen of the revival, and defends it from the charges 
made against it. He says: 

I am constrained to say that I have discovered far less extravagance, 
disorder, and irregularity than could be expected in so extraordinary 
an awakening, especially when part of it took place among persons set- 
tled in the back parts, and entirely destitute of the means of grace. If 
crowded audiences, earnest praying, practical preaching, and animated 
singing may be considered irregularity, if crying out for mercy, if 
shouting glory to God for salvation are disorderly, then there is some 
disorder, but I presume not more than there was on the day of Pente- 
cost. 1 

The Rev. David Nelson's testimony is given in the Western 
Sketch Book. In speaking of the charge that the Kentucky revival 
ran into Shakerism, he says: 

When God has been pleased graciously to visit a people with the 
quickening power of his Spirit, and many have been turned from sin 
to holiness, and from Satan to God, is it not marvelous that good men 
can be so deluded by the wiles of the great adversary as to become 
evidently eager to impute all the wrong things that may appear in that 

1 From the Western Sketch Book, published in East Tennessee by the Rev. 
James Gallagher, of the Presbyterian church. 



Chapter IV.] THE REVIVAL A GENUINE WORK. 25 

community for ten or twenty years afterward to the influence of the 
revival? With as much propriety you might charge the apostasy of 
Judas to the ministry of Jesus Christ. 

It is true that one of the preachers who co-operated with Mc- 
Gready afterward joined the Shakers. It is true, too, that one of 
the apostles who traveled along with Jesus afterward sold his Mas- 
ter. While one of the revival party did go at last to the Shakers, 
it is true, also, that the wealthiest and most influential acquisition 
which the Shakers of that day made in that community was an 
anti-revival Presbyterian. It is true, also, that no Cumberland 
Presbyterian joined them. But what does all that amount to? 
The Shakers neither originated there, nor prospered in that field to 
the extent they did in fields where the Presbyterian church had no 
revival. Nor did any men stand firmer against these heresies than 
the preachers who afterward composed the first presbytery of the 
Cumberland Presbyterian church. The Rev. James Gallagher says 
of these same heresies: 

Certain it is that no men more regretted any departure from sound 
doctrines than did these good men whose labors were so abundantly 
blessed in that dispensation of the Holy Spirit by which the West, in 
its infancy, was consecrated to the service of God. Nor do I believe 
that now, after fifty years, there is in any part of the several evangelical 
denominations more of that religion which God approves than in the 
region visited by the revival of 1800. 

He also speaks of the Cumberland Presbyterians thus: 

This body of Christian people began their organized existence dur- 
ing that great divine visitation. 1 There are among them many strong 
men: workmen that need not be ashamed. And their blessed Master 
has been with them in every part of that wide field where they have 
labored, and has made his gospel the power of God unto salvation to 
many thousand believing souls. From my inmost soul I honor these 
men, and will speak of it in the presence of the church of my God. . . . 
I have no hesitation in declaring my belief that during the last forty 
years no body of ministers in America or in the world have preached so 
much good efficient preaching, and received such small compensation. 
That church now stands before heaven and earth a monument of God's 
great work in the revival of 1800. 

1 The revival of 1800. 



2,6 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period i 

Testimonies from Methodists about the revival could, of course, 
be produced; but these here quoted are all of them from that 
church in which the revival had such bitter opposition. It never 
had any opposition from the Methodists. Bishop Asbury and 
Bishop McKendree both visited the Presbyterian churches where 
it first prevailed, and both gave it their hearty indorsement. 

The history of this revival, by Dr. Speer, is published and 
indorsed by the Presbyterian publishing board at Philadelphia, and 
on the cover the board say, among other things of like import, that 
their object in publishing the book is to "inspire the church to 
efforts for another great revival from on high. ' ' The whole book 
is one of unqualified indorsement of the revival : and except one par- 
agraph, is, I believe, a correct history. That the revival of 1800 
quickened into new life all the enterprises of the Christian churches 
is abundantly proved by this little book. 

That revival in Tennessee and Kentucky, under God, rescued 
those two States, and, through them, the West and South, from 
French infidelity. Going out into a broader field, and studying 
the fruits of the revival in its whole broad extent over America 
and Europe, Dr. Speer shows that this work in the West was only 
a part of a grand forward movement of the kingdom of our Savior 
throughout the world. 

Out of this grand movement sprang the Bible societies, the 
missionary boards, the tract societies, which have so wonderfully 
blessed the world. In a remarkable little book, by Dr. Rochester, 
on Christian progress, he gives us a diagram of progress. In mis- 
sions, the line which shows that progress runs nearly parallel with 
the horizon till it reaches 1800, then it ascends at an angle of about 
sixty degrees. 

For such a time as this are we come into the kingdom. 



Chapter V.] A PENTECOSTAL BAPTISM. 27 



CHAPTER V 



A PENTECOSTAL BAPTISM. 

" Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed ?" 

Awake, O spirit, that of old 
Did'st fire the watchmen of the church's youth, 

Who faced the foe, unshrinking, bold; 
Who witnessed, day and night, the eternal truth; 

Whose voices through the world are ringing still, 
And bringing hosts to know and do thy will. 

— Bogatzky. 

'EvduoqaOe 0'jvo.jmv is Uibouq,. — Luke xxzv. 49, 

T is a truth too often forgotten that the gift of the Holy Ghost 
on the day of Pentecost was the beginning of what was hence- 
forth to be the distinctive privilege of the new dispensation. The 
Holy Spirit had always been in the world, and every genuine 
conversion had been his work; but the Paraclete was that Spirit in 
a new office, and with new and abiding power on the believer, 
The Old Testament saints had the Spirit in occasional manifesta- 
tions. Some who live earnestly, and are true Christians, have only 
these occasional or Old Testament gifts; but the Paraclete is an 
abiding power. "He shall give you another Comforter, that he 
may abide with you forever. " It is a precious gift to be specially 
sought, as it was by the apostles after the ascension of Christ. 

The object of this chapter is to show that the chief actors in 
the revival of 1800 had this New Testament baptism of the Holy 
Ghost. The first proof of this fact is found in the abiding nature 
of their spirituality. They all advocated daily communion with 
God as an attainable experience. In Finis Ewing's lecture on 
sanctification he uses many strong expressions on this subject, and 
adduces, as evidence of a low state of grace in some Christians, the 
fact that "they are not expecting daily communion with God, 
daily access to the throne, a daily or abiding witness that the}' are 
born of God." 



28 Cumberland Presbyterian History, [Period i. 

Besides advocating the theory, their works show plainly that 
they had this abiding presence and power of the Holy Spirit with 
them, and knew the fact, and were made fearless by it. The Rev. 
H. A. Hunter, who knew them all, gave it as his opinion that the 
chief difference between them and modern preachers lay in their 
consciousness of God's abiding presence. 

An anecdote of Bwing illustrates the truth that these men had 
abiding spiritual power. 1 A gentleman went with some wicked 
associates to hear Ewing preach. As he had never heard Ewing, 
his comrades offered to bet him twenty dollars that he could not go 
into the church and sit through the sermon without going to the 
mourner's bench when Bwing made the inevitable call for mourn- 
ers. He took the bet, sat through the sermon, resisted the call for 
mourners, going, instead, out to his comrades, saying, " Gentle- 
men, I have won the bet, but I want none of your money. From 
this hour on, as long as I live, I shall not rest till I find salvation. " 
It was not long until he was among the happy converts, and he 
long ornamented the church in which he cast his lot. 

There is no part of Cumberland Presbyterian history of greater 
practical importance than the subject of this chapter. The dan- 
ger in modern times is that men will forget to seek this new 
anointing from the Holy Spirit. Moody's testimony on this sub- 
ject has been extensively published. "You lack the power," 
the ladies said to him. He sought the power. God gave it to 
him, and it abides with him. He said: 

Eight years ago I was anxious for ministers and workers to see this 
truth and seek for this power. I remember that dear man, Rev. James 
Robertson, of Newington, telling me that when the work began in 
Edinburgh he could only preach once a week. He was suffering from 
heart disease. He prayed and the Spirit of God came upon him; he 
seemed to be anointed for his burial. "And now," said he, "I have 
preached eight times a week for a month, and enjoy better health than 
for years gone." 

I can myself go back almost twelve years, and remember two holy 
women who used to come to my meetings. It was delightful to see 
them there. When I began to preach I could tell by the expression of 
their faces that they were praying for me. At the close of the Sab- 

1 Conversations with Old Kentuckians. 



Chapter V.] A PENTECOSTAL BAPTISM. 



29 



bath meeting they would say to me, " We have been praying for you." 
I said, -'Why don't you pray for the people?" They answered, 
"You need the power." "I need the power!" I said to myself ; "why 
I thought I had power." I had a large Sabbath-school and the larg- 
est congregation in Chicago. There were some conversions at the 
time. I was, in a sense, satisfied. But right along these two godly 
women kept praying for me, and their earnest talk about "anointing 
for special service" set me to thinking. I asked them to come and 
talk with me, and we got down on our knees. They poured out their 
hearts that I might receive an anointing from the Holy Spirit, and 
there came a great hunger into my soul. I did not know what it was. 
I began to cry as I never did before. The hunger increased. I really 
felt that I did not want to live any longer if I could not have this 
power for service. Then came the Chicago fire. I was burnt out of 
house and home at two o'clock in the morning. This did not so much 
affect me; my heart was full of the yearning for divine power. I was 
to go on a special mission to raise funds for the homeless, but my heart 
was not in the work of begging. I could not appeal. I was crying 
all the time that God would fill me with his Spirit. Well, one day in 
the city of New York — O what a day! I can not describe it; I seldom 
refer to it; it is almost too sacred an experience to name. Paul had an 
experience of which he never spoke for fourteen years. I can only say, 
God then revealed himself to me, and I had such an experience of his 
love that I had to ask him to stay his hand. I went to preaching again. 
I did not present any new truths. The sermons were not different, 
and yet hundreds were converted. I would not now be placed back 
where I was before that blessed experience if you would give me all 
Glasgow — it would be as the small dust of the balance. I tell you it is 
a sad day when a convert goes into the church, and that 's the last you 
hear of him. If, however, you want this power for some selfish end — 
as, for example, to gratify your own ambition — you will not get it. 
"No flesh," says God, "shall glory in my presence." May he empty 
us of self and fill us with his Spirit. 

Brought in to be a live factor in the grand progress of Christ's 
kingdom, the Cumberland Presbyterian church stands in wonder- 
ful relations to God. Her first ministers were flaming fires. Wher- 
ever they went there were revivals. When they stopped all night 
at a private house or at wayside hotels, there were professions of 
religion. They left homes and families and every earthly interest 
to go and preach Jesus to perishing souls. My father gave me an 
incident of Robert Donnell which illustrates the ever-abiding pres- 



30 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period i 

ence of God's Holy Spirit with these men. Father was traveling 
in the South and stopped at a wayside inn. Soon after another 
traveler put up at the same house. When the innkeeper proposed 
to take his guests to bed one of them said, "If you have no objec- 
tions, I should like to have prayers with your family before I go to 
bed." The family were gathered. After the prayer the hotel 
keeper and his wife were seen to be weeping. The traveler labored 
with them that night till they both professed religion. The trav- 
eler was the Rev. R-obert Donnell. 

Another incident is here given to illustrate the same abiding 
presence of God's Holy Spirit with the preachers of that great 
revival. Many years ago I was traveling in the mountains of Ten- 
nessee. Passing by a large framed meeting-house, a gentleman 
who lived in the neighborhood, and had fallen in with me on the 
route, said to me: "That Church has a strange history. I^ate one 
Saturday a stranger stopped at my father's to stay all night. After 
supper he told my father that he never traveled on Sunday, and 
would like to have religious services at his house on the Sabbath, 
if there were no objections. Next morning the neighbors were 
gathered in and the stranger preached. The very heavens came 
down to earth. Men fell to the floor crying for mercy. Before 
that stranger left the neighborhood the new converts were organ- 
ized into a Cumberland Presbyterian church. That stranger was 
the Rev. Thomas Calhoun. That church grew until it was able to 
build the house of worship which we have just passed." 

The next proof of this New Testament gift upon our fathers is 
found in the extraordinary power of their preaching. It was not 
learning or talents, but spiritual power. I have tried in vain to 
obtain a copy of a letter published by the Rev. Dr. Samuel Miller, of 
Princeton, New Jersey, in regard to this power in the preaching of 
H. F. Delany. The letter was often spoken of in my boyhood, 
and my recollections of the case are indorsed by several persons 
with whom I have compared notes, and the son of Delany J among 
them. 

Dr. Miller had written some very bitter things against the Cum- 

1 Judge W. S. Delany, Columbus, Texas. 



Chapter V.] A PENTECOSTAL BAPTISM. 



31 



berland Presbyterians, being, as be afterward acknowledged, 1 
wholly misinformed about them. He was traveling west and 
stopped over Sabbath. There was a Cumberland Presbyterian 
camp-meeting in the neighborhood, and Dr. Miller went. The Rev. 
H. F. Delany preached. Dr. Miller found his prejudices melting 
away, until he was all overcome at last with, the simplicity and 
power of the gospel as Delany preached it. Dr. Miller wrote and 
published a glowing account of the sermon, declaring his convic- 
tion that the mighty power of God's Holy Spirit was on that 
preacher. 

An old brother who had known Robert Donnell well attended 
the Chautauqua Assembly. I asked him what he thought of 
Chautauqua. His reply was: "If Robert Donnell could come 
back to earth and preach at Chautauqua just one such sermon as I 
have heard him preach at the camp-meetings it would set the 
whole vast thing on fire, until only the cries of lost sinners and 
the shouts of new converts could be heard. ' ' 

At Cave Spring camp-ground, Overton County, Tennessee, the 
Chapman presbytery was in session. Some ordinations were ap- 
pointed for the Sabbath. The camp-meeting was unusually large. 
Not only the shelter, but the whole lot was filled with people. 
When the presbytery gathered around the candidates for the impo- 
sition of hands, the congregation rose to their feet to see the cere- 
mony. The prayer was offered by the Rev. Thomas Calhoun. His 
pleading with God for the Holy Spirit's power to be given to 
those young men impressed my boyish heart, as I listened, with 
new and grand ideas of the divine mission of the gospel ministry. 
Then the prayer shed a startling flash of light on a holy partner- 
ship and union between a truly spiritual preacher and God. Then 
came another flash sweeping out over the dark masses of fallen 
men to whom God was sending the gospel. O the gospel! how 
that prayer revealed and transformed it to my young eyes. The 
prayer went on, and people standing near the preacher sank down 
sobbing to the earth. The prayer went on, and others who stood 
next sank in like manner to the ground. Burning sentences, 



See Revivalist, 1833. 



32 Cumberland. Presbyterian History. [Period i. 

thrilling with the power of God's Spirit, went up from the preach- 
er's heart to God, and the next circle of by-standers sank to the 
ground, sobbing and groaning. Finally, all under the shelter 
were alike bowed to the earth. Still the thrilling prayer seemed 
to gather more power. When at last it closed, not only under the 
shelter, but out to the fence and all around, and back even in the 
camps, men lay upon the ground weeping and praying. 

Nobody rose when the amen was uttered. The remaining cer- 
emonies were performed in choking, sobbing whispers. Then 
there was a pause. O that pause! Then the old man, the grand 
survivor of the revival preachers of 1800, uttered one little sen- 
tence: u Ye called of God, to your work!" and, leading the way, 
he and the other preachers went among the prostrate crowd, telling 
the lost what to do to be saved. 

Our venerable and beloved brother, the Rev. W. H. Baldridge, 
who was a pupil first and afterward a fellow-laborer of the Rev. 
James B. Porter, gives me many precious facts about Porter's won- 
derful spiritual power. Although Brother Baldridge heard all our 
first preachers, being now eighty years old, he does not hesitate to 
pronounce Porter the most powerful one among them. One of the 
facts which he so kindly furnished me is as follows: The Rev. 
James Bowman, of the Presbyterian church, resolved to hold a 
camp-meeting in his congregation; but his brethren, in his pres- 
bytery, were nearly all Old Side, and would have nothing to do 
with camp-meetings. The few favorable to the revival had other 
engagements. Bowman could get no help. The ecclesiastical 
authorities of the mother church had forbidden its people either 
to recognize as ministers the preachers of the Cumberland Pres- 
byterian church, or to commune with its members. 1 Notwith- 
standing this, Mr. Bowman invited James B. Porter to assist him 
in his camp-meeting. This was a new departure. Porter agreed 
to assist on two conditions. First, that he should be allowed to 
preach his own doctrines. Second, that there "should be no tokens 
used at the communion service, but all Christians be allowed to par- 
ticipate. His conditions were accepted. While Porter preached 

x This prohibition was revoked in 1825. 



Chapter V.] A PENTECOSTAL BAPTISM. 33 

(text, "Turn, ye prisoners of hope"), the mighty power of God 
swept over the vast assembly. Sinners fell like men slain in bat- 
tle. Going home was postponed one day after another. There 
were one hundred and twenty-five professions. Fifteen of the con- 
verts became ministers of the gospel. 

Another proof that these spiritual heroes had this higher 
baptism is found in their lofty faith. What a difference Pen- 
tecost made in the faith of the apostles! The men of 1800 often 
announced results beforehand, because God had given them assur- 
ance in answer to their prayers. In Bird's life of Alexander Chap- 
man, p. 178, is an incident illustrating this point. At Mount 
Moriah, in Logan County, Kentucky, after hours spent in the woods 
in solemn prayer, Chapman began his sermon with the words, ' ' You 
shall all feel before I am done. ' ' The results vindicated his assur- 
ance. Not only feeling, but many conversions there were there 
that day. 

There is an incident from Calhoun's ministry illustrating this 
point. He was at a camp-meeting at Rock Spring camp-ground, 
in Overton County, Tennessee. On Sabbath morning at breakfast 
some one told him that two desperate young men had bound them- 
selves by a solemn oath to break up the meeting that day. Cal- 
houn replied, "We'll see." Immediately after breakfast he went 
to his usual retreat, the woods, and there remained in prayer till 
time to commence the eleven o'clock sermon. Then he entered 
the rustic pulpit and announced his text. Then he stated what had 
been told him at breakfast, adding: "I am a preacher called and 
sent from God. You shall this day see, and know, and acknowl- 
edge that God is with me, and is able to give me the victory over 
all the opposition of men and devils. ' ' At that moment the two 
desperate young men before spoken of rose to their feet, and, with 
loud oaths, began cursing the preacher and the meeting, and mov- 
ing through the crowd with noisy efforts at disturbance. Calhoun 
went on with his sermon. No human voice could keep his from 
being heard. The piercing power of his sentences made people 
forget all disturbances. That eagle eye of his held the eyes of 
the congregation. Pe6ple were weeping. Hearts were lifted to 
God in prayer. The poor, silly young men who were trying to 
3 



34 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period i. 

disturb the worship could not help hearing those wonderful sen- 
tences. No one could hear them without feeling the burning fire 
of God's Spirit which was in them. Presently one, then the other, 
of these two would-be disturbers of God's worship fell, like Saul 
of Tarsus, prostrate to the earth. They both were converted that 
day, and one of them became a minister of the gospel, and died 
proclaiming salvation to the lost. My parents were present at this 
meeting and gave me the incident. I knew the men. 

Another proof that the men of 1800 had this Paraclete bap- 
tism is seen in their real, practical consecration to Christ, much 
like the consecration after Pentecost. Solemn covenants of conse- 
cration were written by some of them after their conversion, and 
were carried out in such a manner as to show that they were in 
earnest. From a long written covenant of consecration which was 
entered into by Robert Donnell, I make a brief extract: u And 
now, O L,ord, I consecrate myself, .... my talents — whether 
one or five — my time, influence, all to thee. ' ' 

A few years afterward when his little daughter died, he was 
absent in Alabama holding a camp-meeting. Writing to his wife, 
on receiving this sad intelligence, he says : c ' But for my appoint- 
ments to preach, I would set out immediately to see my dear, 
afflicted wife. I have, however, given myself to the L,ord to serve 
in his vineyard, and am not at liberty, like men of the world, to 
leave my Master's work." ? Ah! consecration was no empty sound 
in such a life as that. [See Kzek. xxiv. 16, et seq.~\ 

Take one more case. When Samuel King was in his sixtieth 
year the General Assembly asked him to make an evangelistic 
tour among the feeble churches of the frontier. Without hesita- 
tion he mounted his horse and made a grand tour through Ten- 
nessee, Kentucky, Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and 
Missouri. He was absent from his family, on this tour, nearly two 
years. Do you say he did not love his family ? I answer that you 
who say that do not know what real practical consecration to 
Christ, the King, means. 

I find that written covenants of consecration were the rule, their 

I Lowry's Life of Donnell, pp. 43, 45. 



Chapter V.] A PENTECOSTAL BAPTISM. 35 

absence the exception. But this covenant is often made in words, 
while the after life shows there was no real consecration in deeds. 
The lives of all these heroes of 1800 show consecration in deeds. 

When this higher baptism was given on the day of Pentecost, 
there followed grander answers to prayer than the apostles had 
ever known before. The men of 1800 had answers to prayer of 
such a nature as to provoke incredulous smiles when described in 
modern times. 

About the year 1814, the Rev. William Harris was very sick with 
winter fever. It was thought he would die. The family stood 
round him weeping. He turned his face to the wall and prayed. 
At length he told his wife to cease weeping because the Lord had 
given him the clear assurance that he should recover from that 
sickness. He lived thirty years after that. The life-long friend 
of Harris, the Rev. Alexander Chapman, having heard of this dan- 
gerous illness of his fellow - laborer, called together the Little 
Muddy congregation, of which he was pastor, and notified them 
that the special object for which he had assembled them was that 
they might join him in praying for the recovery of Harris. It 
was at the same hour in which they were engaged in this prayer 
that Harris announced to his wife that he was going to get well. 1 

Thirty years ago all this country abounded with similar tradi- 
tions of wonderful answers to prayer. 

The wife of the Rev. W. W. Hendricks, D.D., witnessed the 
following incident and furnished me a written account thereof. 
The Rev. Thomas Calhoun was preaching the funeral sermon of 
the Rev. Robert Donnell. Vast crowds of people were present. A 
heavy rain was seen to be approaching. People began to be rest- 
less. Calhoun raised his hands to heaven and prayed God not to 
allow the rain to disturb the solemn worship. Then, turning to 
the congregation, he assured them that God would not allow the 
rain to come upon their saddles. The cloud parted, and it rained 
all around, hard and long, but none fell either on the camp-ground 
or on the multitude of horses which stood with saddles on them in 
the adjacent grove. 

1 Beard's Memoirs of the Rev. William Harris, p. 138. 



36 Cumberland Presbyterian History. ' [Period 1. 

Many years ago, some ladies, in Kentucky, who witnessed the 
following incident, gave me, substantially, this history thereof. 
There was a severe drouth. Chapman called his congregation 
together to pray for rain. He lead the first prayer. At first the 
prayer was very earnest pleading, then the prayer turned into 
thanksgiving for the rain which God had assured him was com- 
ing. It began raining abundantly that same day. O well, people 
laugh at such things now, and they who laugh go without any 
such answers to their prayers. Every one of our first preachers 
has left us proof that he believed that God healed the sick in 
answer to the prayer of faith. I am prepared to substantiate this 
assertion, if need be. Dr. Beard, in noticing this faith of our 
fathers, indorses and defends it. See biographical sketch of Har- 
ris. He gives his testimony, too, to the facts which I have been 
laboring to prove about this Paraclete power on the men of 1800. 
Hear him: 

The first generation of Cumberland Presbyterians were the most 
intensely spiritual people that I have ever known. It is charged, I 
know, that old men look back and magnify the past, while young men 
look forward; but I can not be mistaken on this subject. Those people 
lived nearer heaven than ordinary Christians do now." x 

The earnest advocacy of this Paraclete baptism, as a distinct 
blessing, after conversion, is found in many of the writings of our 
fathers. The McAdow MSS. before me contain two sermons 
devoted specially to this subject. One of them argues the general 
question; the other discusses the absolute necessity of this divine 
baptism in order to ministerial success. Some points in Mr. Mc- 
Adow' s arguments will be here condensed. He says: The gift of 
the Holy Ghost, in conviction and conversion, is not all its gifts. 
This is shown by the Holy Spirit giving messages and prophecies 
to unconverted men, like Balaam. It is shown by the gift of the 
Spirit to King Saul, not for his own sake at all, but for the sake 
of God's people over whom Saul was ruler. It is shown by the 
gifts of mechanical skill to Bezaleel, that he might construct cun- 
ningly the vessels of the sanctuary. It is shown by the gift of 
wisdom to Solomon that he might govern God's people wisely. It 



1 Dr. Frizzell's semi-centennial pamphlet, pp. 57, 58. 



Chapter V.] A PENTECOSTAL BAPTISM. 37 

is shown by all the special " ascension gifts" mentioned in the 
New Testament — gifts suited to each special sphere of duty, in 
which men had their special callings; gifts conferred after conver- 
sion, fitting each recipient for some special service. 

The other sermon takes the ground boldly, and argues it, that 
after a truly converted man is called of God to preach the gospel, 
and has received all the education which the schools can give, he 
may still be destitute of this New Testament baptism, and he is 
utterly unfit for his work in the gospel ministry until he does 
receive this superadded gift of power from the Paraclete, specially 
fitting him for the work of preaching the gospel. In this sermon 
Mr. McAdow argues the perpetuity of the order to tarry at Jerusa- 
lem till endued with the power from above. He insists that no 
one should go out to the preacher's work until this baptism of 
power has been conferred upon his soul. He shows that no amount 
of learning or professional training can give this power. Even 
the three years which the apostles spent traveling with Jesus failed 
to furnish it. He says : "I have no doubt but that there are men 
in our day who have received a genuine call to preach the gospel, 
.... but have never yet received that unction of the Holy 
Ghost." Again he says: u O that all our dear brethren who are 
looking forward to the ministry would heed the admonition of 
Christ to his disciples, and tarry at Jerusalem till they obtain this 
seal of their commission! " 

The Rev. James Gallagher, a precious minister of the Presbyte- 
rian church, who witnessed some of the scenes of the great revival, 
discusses this very subject in u The Western Sketch Book," which 
he edited. He gives wonderful descriptions of the special gifts of 
prayer bestowed on some people. He insists that these were spe- 
cial enduements of power from God's Spirit. He says, while dis- 
cussing the "bodily exercises:" u Of the professors of religion who 
were in this country when this revival began, perhaps one half 
became the subjects of this bodily exercise. These were invariably 
baptized with that spirit of prayer. The bodily exercises did not 
continue long, but that marvelous power of prayer was lasting as 
life." He goes on to describe the wonderful transformations of 
dull and formal and stupid church members by this baptism. He 



3 8 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period i. 

says many, personally known to him through a period of thirty 
years, whose prayers had always been cold and lifeless, when they 
received that divine enduement of power, "would at once rise 
above and beyond themselves — yea, above all I ever heard. This 
extraordinary power in prayer continued with them through their 
life." Again he says of this new power in prayer: "The man 
who has been acquainted with that strain or manner of prayer will 
know it in a moment whenever or wherever he may have the 
opportunity to hear it again. ' ' 

Dr. Bird, in his life of Chapman, page 350, says he "valued the 
anointing of the Holy Spirit above every thing else. . . . Grace, 
the anointing of the Holy Spirit, was every thing to him." 

Every one of these men whom I heard preach in my boyhood 
— Donnell, McSpeddin, Barnett, Calhoun, Harris, George Donnell, 
and many others of the next generation — laid special emphasis on 
this baptism of power from the Holy Spirit. This they did in all 
their preaching and their prayers. 

Men try to apologize for the lack of this spiritual power now 
by pleading that the preachers of 1800 had uneducated, primitive, 
excitable people to preach to. Some of them cite the impulsive- 
ness and inflammability of the colored race as a proof that the grand 
results of 1800 were due to similar conditions, instead of a superior 
spirituality. I ask, Was the Rev. Dr. Samuel Miller ignorant 
and excitable? Was the Rev. James Gallagher, of the Presbyte- 
rian church, or the Rev. Dr. Bird, or the Rev. Dr. Beard, or the 
Rev. Dr. H. A. Hunter, of our own church, ignorant and excitable? 
No, no! Let us turn to the stronghold and seek the divine gift 
for our own souls. 



Chapter VI.J OPPOSITION TO THE REVIVAL. 39 



CHAPTER VI. 



OPPOSITION TO THE REVIVAL. 

To see the blow, to feel the pain, 
But render only love again! 
This spirit, not to earth is given; 
One had it, but HE came from heaven. 

— Hemans. 

IT is hard to be impartially just in writing this chapter. There 
is no doubt but that the manner in which the revival was man- 
aged gave some just grounds for complaint; neither is there any 
ground to doubt that most of the complaints made were unde- 
served. All genuine revivals are committed to human manage- 
ment, and stir up both just and unjust complaints. 

Before McGready came to Kentucky his revivals stirred up 
opposition, even to the extent of threatening the preacher's life. 
A letter written in blood was sent to him warning him to leave 
the country. x 

When, in his Kentucky field, the revival made its appearance, 
the Rev. Mr. Balch, of McGready' s own presbytery, visited Mc- 
Gready' s churches for the special purpose of preaching against the 
revival, and ridiculing what McGready had taught about faith, 
repentance, and regeneration. 2 Balch' s preaching caused a vast 
amount of mischief. Nor did he stop with pulpit ministrations, 
but also visited the converts from house to house ridiculing their 
experience. 3 Nor was this preacher the only one who opposed 
the revival. In the same field were four others who opposed it. 
They were Craighead, Bowman, Templin, and Donnell. Balch 
made the fifth; just half the Presbyterian preachers in that field. 
Those who favored the revival and worked for it were McGready, 

1 Smith's History, p. 563; Foote, p. 50. 

2 Smith, p. 567, et seq.; McGready 's Posthumous Papers 

3 See Mrs. Williamson's letters in Bird's Chapman. 



40 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period i. 

Hodge, McGee, McAdow, and Rankin. The opposition was not 
confined to the ministry. King, with his lancet and camphor, 
going to minister to a soul seeking salvation, was only a sample 
of what many a church member was. 

Before any other question arose between the two parties this 
one had split the churches asunder. The Muddy River church, in 
Kentucky, divided, and the revival party formed a new church 
called Liberty. 

In 1801 x the difficulty on this account in the Shiloh congrega- 
tion, Sumner County, Tennessee, was brought before the presbytery. 
It had, of course, occurred before that date. The same year the 
revival part of Spring Creek church, 2 in Wilson County, Tennessee, 
having for a considerable time been locked out of the meeting- 
house, withdrew and built them another house, which they called 
Bethesda. This church still exists. 

The Gasper church, 3 in Logan County, Kentucky, was closed 
against the revival party, and for years they held their meetings 
in the grove near the church. At a later day they built at Pilot 
Knob, in Simpson County. Their meeting place was in the adja- 
cent grove when the Commission met at the church. This ex- 
plains what Dr. Davidson says about Mr. Rankin's addressing the 
people in the grove while the Commission were at Gasper. 

The Red River church, 4 in Logan County, Kentucky, was 
locked against the revival party, and McGready stood on the door 
steps and preached. One day while he or some other revival 
preacher stood there gesticulating violently, a backward stroke 
broke the lock, and the house was never locked against the revival 
party afterward. 

There were several cases in which this opposition to the revival 
amounted to personal violence. The Calhoun MSS. give an 
account of one man who used a stick to enforce his views. The 
McAdow papers make several allusions to this personal violence. 
So do the Kirkpatrick MSS. In this opposition infidels and 
church members made common cause. A very wicked man saw 

1 Minutes of Transylvania Presbytery, 1801; Revivalist, April 16, 1834. 

2 Lowry's Life of Donnell, p. 26. 3 Bird's Chapman, p. 70. 
4 Conversations with Old People at Red River. 






Chapter VI.] OPPOSITION TO THE REVIVAL. 41 

his wife go to the mourner's bench. In a rage he rushed to the 
place and dragged her away, cursing the revival as he went. 
While he was on his way to her horse a tree fell on him and killed 
him. The corpse was brought back to the shelter, and then and 
there McGready preached the poor sinner's funeral sermon. This 
was at Shiloh. 1 

Opposition to revivals per se is an exotic plant in Presbyterian 
gardens. Its importation began in the Established Church of 
Scotland, when state authority thrust unconverted men into the 
pastorates. We have already seen that unconverted preachers were 
common in McGready' s day, according to the judgment of their 
contemporaries. Such men are generally opposed to revivals per 
se. But a far better class of Presbyterians have always opposed 
"revival measures." All honest hyper-Calvinists are logically 
opposed to such things. A recent writer in The Southern Presby- 
terian Quarterly, in arguing against our modern revivals, puts 
ultra- Calvinism in its legitimate expression when he says: "In the 
conversion and sanctification of the elect, the Almighty appoints a 

bound, and there is no margin for improvement A faithful 

proclamation of the glad tidings is all the machinery that is needed 
in the salvation of those who are ordained to eternal life." 2 The 
same writer declares his conviction that all the modern revivals 
have been a disadvantage to the churches. 

There were in 1800 many rigid notions among the churches 
which seem strange to us now. Singing hymns instead of psalms 
was one of McGready' s offenses. The day for opposition to fire- 
places or stoves in church was gone, but other things as unreason- 
able still held sway among the descendants of the Covenanters. 
Night meetings were considered scandalous. In the catalogue of 
"new measures" which the "Old Side" party objected to, were 
protracted meetings, night meetings, calling in other ministers to 
aid in meetings, inquiry meetings, propositions calling for action 
of any kind, weeping in the pulpit, great fervor in exhortation, 
itinerant preachers, evangelists both lay and clerical, singing hymns, 
all noise — shouting, groaning, or crying out for mercy; to all of 

1 John McGee locates this incident incorrectly. 

2 Southern £>jiarterly, 1SC8, p. 155. 



42 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period i. 

which was added another long list after camp-meetings and the 
mourner's bench came into use. The Presbyterian church was 
at first divided about half and half on these questions, but the Old 
Side party to-day is everywhere in the minority. It counted the 
heaviest pens of the church from 1740 to 1800. Some of Dr. 
Samuel Miller's complaints against the revivals in which these 
new measures were used are very severe, 1 but scarcely less so than 
Dr. Charles Hodge's. 2 

There were in 1800 many ministers who believed the revival 
genuine, but objected to many of the measures used, and objected 
to such an extent that they were often classed with the anti-revival 
party. David Rice was one of this class. It was new measures 
which many good men conscientiously opposed. The revival 
preachers of the Presbyterian church, all the better class of them, 
admitted the necessity of caution in times of great popular excite- 
ment, and acknowledged the worthlessness of man-made revivals; 
but they said as God uses human beings in all genuine revivals, so 
will there always be human imperfections accompanying them. 
They illustrated the constants and the variables of Christianity by 
the art of printing. The truth was a constant, printing a variable, 
and not mentioned in Scripture; yet by its use the unchangeable 
truth could be carried to many who could never see a copy of the 
Bible by the old method. There is but one way of salvation, but 
the agencies by which that way may be taught and impressed are 
multiplying and improving every year. 

The mourner's bench is one of the variables. The advocates 
of new measures presented strong arguments in its favor, such 
as these: It commits the sinner publicly to seeking salvation; it 
touches the hearts of his comrades; it enlists the prayers of Chris- 
tians for him; it mortifies his stubborn pride. But the mourner's 
bench has been abused. Perhaps other methods are to take its place. 

As for itinerant preaching it is willful blindness to call it a new 
measure. Christ and his apostles used it, and the commission was 
"go," not u stay." 

The New Side showed that the revival on the day of Pentecost 

1 See his ninth letter to Presbyterians. 

2 See his History of the Presbyterian Church in America. 



Chapter VI.] OPPOSITION TO THE REVIVAL. 43 

was one of excitement and noise, so much so that men said the 
apostles were drunk; and yet that great revival neither destroyed 
nor hindered the ordinary services, but souls were ' ' daily added ' ' 
to the church after the meeting. There was new life in those 
ordinary regular services. There was a consecration of men and 
money to Jesus far beyond what the ordinary services produced. 

Then they turned the tables on the objectors. They showed 
what a routine of stagnation and death the ordinary services had 
reached before every one of the great revival periods. Men were 
taken into the church without conversion; unconverted men were 
taken into the ministry; infidelity, too, crept in under this cloak 
of lifeless forms; and vast multitudes were sweeping away to hell 
under a godless ministry. 

If Dr. Miller's ninth letter is appalling, the answers to it are 
still more so. One of the writers (himself a Presbyterian) z asks : 
"Are any of these able men who are writing against the way we 
conduct our revivals themselves experts in revivals ? Did any sin- 
gle one of them ever have a revival, either genuine or spurious, 
under his ministry ? ' ' 

We are successful watch-makers. We have sent out thousands 
of good time-pieces, none of them faultless, but all serviceable. 
Up yonder in the college observatory is an able astronomer, and 
he sets himself to writing against our watches, and denouncing 
them for lack of that ideal perfection which, from his mathemat- 
ical training, he sees in them. We ask him, Sir, did you ever 
make a watch ? 

There is a history by Dr. Robert Henderson, quoted in the 
McMullin MS., which seems in place here. Dr. Blackburn was 
holding a revival meeting on the New Side programme. Dr. Hen- 
derson, who was Old Side, and had no patience with Dr. Black- 
burn's meeting, was present. So he gathered a part of Dr. 
Blackburn's congregation into another house, and held an oi'derly 
meeting for them. Although some of Dr. Blackburn's most 
excitable followers were present, yet there was no noise or confu- 
sion of any sort at Dr. Henderson's meeting. It also comes out, 
incidentally, that there were no conversions there. 

1 See New York Evangelist, 1S33. 



44 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period i. 

In 1852 an earnest Methodist was holding a revival meeting in 
the church just opposite a great Catholic church in Philadelphia. 
Day and night for a hundred days the meeting swept on like a 
tempest. Finally the priest called on the Methodist preacher and 
inquired if there was no way "to have a stop put to that nui- 
sance." The answer was, "Nothing easier, sir; you just come 
and preach in my pulpit and all the noise will stop." No doubt 
Dr. Henderson could produce order out of Dr. Blackburn's excit- 
able materials, but Dr. Blackburn had thousands of seals to his 
ministry. 

The reader will please look at the map. Kentucky Synod 
took in both the Cumberland settlement and the upper Kentucky 
settlement. A wilderness lay between them. None of ( ' the Cum- 
berland party" lived or preached in "upper Kentucky." Four 
Presbyterian ministers in upper Kentucky preached some wild 
doctrines, and. used many strange methods at their meetings, all of 
which the Cumberland party earnestly condemned. Years before 
the "Cumberland schism" originated there was a schism in upper 
Kentucky, and those engaged therein were called Stoneites, after 
the name of their leader, the Rev. Barton W. Stone. The wild- 
est and most wonderful of their meetings were at Cane Ridge, where 
miracles, prophesies, and other such wonderful things were said to 
take place. Afterward, when the Cumberland party sprang up in 
"Cumberland," some of the Stoneite preachers came to that field, 
but in every case ( ' the revival party ' ' of Cumberland Presbytery 
refused to allow these Stoneites to preach in their meetings. 
Kwing and others preached against the heresies of the Stoneites. 
Yet for years, and even now, * ' the anti-revival party ' ' of the mother 
church holds up the Cane Ridge meetings and Stoneite theol- 
ogy as samples of what the meetings and doctrines of Cumberland 
Presbyterians are. Several writers who confounded McGready's 
meetings and the Cumberland meetings of a later day with these 
wild meetings in upper Kentucky, afterward discovered and cor- 
rected their mistake. Others have promised to correct theirs 
also. It is far more important to them than it is to us that they 
should do so. "An outrage," says Cervantes, "injures him who 
gives it, not him that receives it. ' ' 



Chapter VI.] OPPOSITION TO THE REVIVAI,. 



45 



An illustration of these misrepresentations is seen in the pub- 
lished letters of Dr. Samuel Miller. He had so often heard and 
read the charge that the Stoneites, Shakers, and Cumberland Pres- 
byterians were all branches of one tree, and all alike in their 
revival meetings, that he repeated the charge in his publications. 
He afterward published the following recantation; "I am now 
convinced that in representing the 'New lights' or ' Stoneites, ' 
the 'Shakers,' and the Cumberland Presbyterians as exfoliations 
from the same disorderly body, and of about the same time, I wrote 
under a misapprehension of the facts." x Again, in the same let- 
ter, he says: "Neither the Stoneites nor the Shakers ever made 
constituent parts of that body. The Stoneites and Shakers, I am 
now aware, were separated from the church several years anterior 
to the departure of the Cumberland Presbyterians. ' ' 

Another sample is taken from the Presbyterian, 1847. After 
making some grave charges against us, the editor proceeds to 
prove them, thus, quoting from the Assembly's digest: 

But we will give a brief extract in their own words, as these Min- 
utes are accessible but to a few. "When we withdrew," they say, 
"we considered ourselves freed from all creeds but the Bible; and 
since that time, by constant application to it, we are led further from 
the idea of adopting creeds and confessions as standards, than we were 
at first. We feel ourselves citizens of the world; God our common 
Father; all men our brethren by nature, and all Christians our brethren 
in Christ. This principle of universal love to Christians gains ground 
in our hearts in proportion as we get clear of particular attach- 
ments to party. We therefore can not put ourselves in a situation 
which would check the growth of so benign a temper, and make 
us fight under a party standard." Although these men had just denied 
the faith, rent the church, and set up a party standard, yet, with this 
high sounding language, they attempted to beguile the public, and said 
to the assembly, " Let us pray for more of the uniting, cementing spirit, 
and treat differences in lesser matters with Christian charity." They 
were ready for a reunion, but only on the terms that the whole church 
should give up its creed and descend to their level. Thus it was 
upwards of forty years ago in our own church; let the church now, as 
then, stand up for the maintenance and defense of its precious distinct- 
ive doctrines. 

x Revivalist, June 18, 1834. 



46 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period i. 

To which Milton Bird made the following reply, addressing 
himself to the Presbyterian: 

By referring to Davidson's late history of Presbyterianism in Ken- 
tucky (pp. 197, 198, 200,), in connection with the Minutes from which 
you quote, you will find that you have mistaken the "New Lights" for 
the Cumberland Presbyterians. The two have no more fellowship 
with each other than night and day. The "Separatists," or "New 
Lights," to which these Minutes refer, soon disbanded without adopt- 
ing any creed. Three of. them joined the Shakers, two united again 
with the Presbyterian church, and the sixth, Barton Stone, joined the 
Campbellites. 

Then the Presbyterian made the following statement: 

A Correction. — We incidentally referred in some remarks on dis- 
tinctive Presbyterianism, to the schism of the Cumberland Presbyte- 
rians as illustrative of the views we were expressing, and quoted a doc- 
ument found in the Minutes of the General Assembly, which we attrib- 
uted to the members of this presbytery. In this we erred. The senti- 
ments we quoted were chargeable to the "New Light Schism" in 
Kentucky, and not to the Cumberland Presbyterians, who did not 
come on the stage until several years afterward. 

How carelessly that editor read the Minutes of his own Assem- 
bly! There are still those who reiterate the old slander, perhaps 
really believing it. Thus Dr. Speer (1872), in his little book 
entitled "The Great Revival of 1800," represents "Cumberland- 
ism" as originating out of the Cane Ridge furor, while he holds 
up in contrast the more orderly meetings in McGready's field in 
Logan County. 1 Dr. Speer wrote me that he would make some 
corrections when he published his next edition. It is not the pur- 
pose of this history to expose and refute the unfounded and bitter 
charges which the anti-revival party of that day made against the 
revival, and afterward against the church which took its rise from 
that revival. In most cases these bitter charges were never 
indorsed by the bulk of the Presbyterian church. Their refutation 
was given at the time. Let that suffice. 

One of the foci of fury where opposition to the revival rallied 
was "the jerks." Of these strange matters a few words must be 
written. In many countries, both in the Old World and the New, 

1 See pp. 38-40. 



Chapter VI.] OPPOSITION TO THE REVIVAL. 



47 



and in many meetings, and especially Presbyterian meetings, not 
only in 1800, bnt in previous revivals, these bodily exercises made 
their appearance. Their first appearance in the revival of 1800 
was not in McGready's churches, but in Gideon Blackburn's, in 
East Tennessee. The first person to have them in this western 
field was the Rev. Dr. Doak, a graduate of Princeton, New Jersey, 
and a thorough Presbyterian. These exercises have been investi- 
gated scientifically and often. All parties agree that they were 
involuntary. A curious story was current in my boyhood about a 
Presbyterian minister who came into Tennessee and was preaching 
against these bodily exercises, when he was himself seized with 
them in the pulpit and violently jerked about. 

Dr. Blackburn, Dr. Baxter, McGready, and Hodge, and a host 
of others, all Presbyterians, and eye-witnesses, were fully per- 
suaded that these strange manifestations were the direct work 
of God's Holy Spirit, sent to silence and convince the gainsay ers 
of that day. Others thought them only the result of nervous 
excitement. Dr. Blackburn quoted Scripture to show that they 
were the legitimate work of the Holy Spirit. James Smith 
("Scotch Smith," as our people called him) took the nervous 
view of the matter. So did Dr. Charles Hodge and Dr. Davidson. 
It is absolutely certain that these strange exercises made a deep 
and solemn impression on those who witnessed them. Proofs are 
in existence of the conversion of many an infidel through the 
agency, under God, of these strange manifestations. Advocates 
of the nervous theory were put to practical confusion at Gasper 
River at the first appearance of these wonders there. They plied 
medical remedies to those who fell prostrate and lay like dead men. 
The lancet was used to such an extent that the place was covered 
with bleeding bodies like a battle-field, 1 but no good ever came 
from this medical treatment; and no harm to life, limb, or reason 
ever came from the mysterious exercises. Dr. Charles Hodge's 
effort to connect these bodily exercises with nervous epidemics, 
whose origin had no connection with religion, is, it seems to me, a 
total failure. 

1 Hugh Kirkpatrick's MSS. 



48 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period i. 



CHAPTER VIL 



THE SECOND DIFFICULTY— MINISTERIAL EDUCATION. 

" Shall we to men benighted, 
The lamp of life deny? " 

THERE was a vast field almost destitute of the means of grace. 
Most of the settlers had been accustomed to church privileges 
in their former homes, and were clamorous for them in their fron- 
tier cabins. Those who attended the camp-meetings returned to 
spread the religious interest in their neighborhoods. A sufficient 
supply of preachers could not be secured. The case was one of 
extreme urgency. The Rev. David Rice visited McGready's field, 
"and being informed of the destitute state of most of the churches, 
and the pressing demands for the means of grace, earnestly recom- 
mended that they should choose from among the laity some men 
who appeared to possess talents and a disposition to exercise their 
gifts publicly to preach the gospel, although they might not have 
acquired that degree of education required by the Book of Disci- 
pline. This proposition was cordially approved by both preach- 
ers and people What still more clearly convinced them of 

the propriety of this measure was that in almost every congrega- 
tion that had been blessed with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, 
there were one or more intelligent and spiritual men whose gifts in 
exhortation had already been honored by the Head of the church 
in awakening and converting precious souls. Accordingly three 
zealous, intelligent, and influential members of the church — viz., 
Alexander Anderson, Finis Ewing, and Samuel King — were 
encouraged by the revival preachers to prepare written discourses 
and to present themselves before the Transylvania Presbytery at its 
session in 1801. All these persons had previously been under 
serious impressions that it was their duty to devote themselves to 
the ministry, but as they had not enjoyed the advantages of a 



Chapter VII.] MINISTERIAL EDUCATION. 49 

collegiate education, and were men of families and somewhat 
advanced in life, they had been laboring under difficulties. At 
the meeting of Transylvania Presbytery, in October, 1801, the 
case of these brethren was brought before that body, from some of 
whom they met with warm opposition. However, after a pro- 
tracted discussion, it was agreed by the majority that they might 
be permitted to read their discourses privately to Mr. Rice. ' ' z 
They did so, and Rice reported favorably. They were then sent 
out as exhorters to the vacant congregations, and instructed to 
prepare written discourses for the next meeting of the presbytery. 

In the spring of 1802 Anderson was received by a majority of 
one vote as a regular candidate for the ministry, and the others by 
a majority of one vote were retained in the category of catechists. 
In the fall of 1802 they were all licensed to preach. 

Here was the second ground of complaint. The question was 
not then, nor is it now, about the great importance of a classical 
education, but it was, and still is, whether after we have done our 
utmost in educating men for the ministry, we may supplement the 
supply by licensing judicious men of piety and promise to work 
among the perishing, even when these men have not a collegiate 
education. Inasmuch as there was opposition, Mr. Rice, by direc- 
tion of the presbytery, addressed a letter to the General Assembly 
on the subject. Here is the answer: 2 

A liberal education, though not absolutely essential, has been shown 
to be highly important and useful, from reason and experience and the 
prosperity of the Presbyterian and New England churches. But, 
whatever might be the Assembly's opinion, the standards are explicit 
on the subject. As to the apprehension of schism in consequence of 
rigid views, the reply must be that the path of duty is the path of 
safety, and events are to be committed to God. Parties formed under 
such circumstances would be neither important nor permanent. Not- 
withstanding, when the field is too extensive, catechists, like those of 
primitive times, may be found useful assistants. But great caution 
should be used in selecting prudent and sound men lest they run into 
extravagance and pride. Their duties should be carefully defined and 
subject to frequent inspection. They should not be considered stand- 

1 Quoted from Smith's History. 

2 Quoted from Cossitt's Life of Ewing, p. 346. 



50 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period i. 

ing officers in the church, but, if possessed of uncommon talents, dili- 
gent in study, and promising usefulness, they might in time purchase to 
themselves a good degree, and be admitted in regular course to the holy 
ministry. [Italics mine.] 

This advice of the General Assembly accords in every possible 
particular with the views then taken by the revival party. On 
those views they acted, and against them the other party planted 
themselves. Every Cumberland Presbyterian would consent to 
have all the licensures by Cumberland Presbytery tried by this 
rule. So, too, may the licensures of Ewing, King, and Ander- 
son by the Transylvania Presbytery be tried. Though not fully 
up to the requirements in the classics, these three men were all 
men of respectable attainments in scholarship. Ewing had con- 
siderable classical knowledge. There were catechists sent out at a 
later day who never expected to become regular ministers. As a 
considerable number of these catechists were employed, it is not a 
matter of surprise that a few of them disappointed the expectations 
of the presbytery. 

But, of all those whom the revival party licensed to preach, 
there is not one single name which is not held in the profoundest 
veneration to-day in all the field where they labored. Not one of 
them left a reputation tarnished by heresy, apostasy, or defection 
from the church and services of the Lord Jesus. They all died 
with their armor on after a noble warfare. Su^ch things can not be 
said of those who constituted the other party of the Cumberland 
Presbytery. 

At a later day the revival party sent a history of their action at 
this time to the General Assembly. An extract from that history 
is here given. The history is too long to quote in full 1 but it is 
all interesting, and is in perfect accord with the history of the 
revival given in this book, especially as to when, where, and how 
the revival originated. 

After describing the origin of the revival and its wonderful 
spread over the whole country, they say: 

Now, truly, the harvest was great and the laborers few. Unable to 

*See Revivalist, May 14, 1834. See also appendix A, in Life and Times of 
Ewing. 



Chapter VII.] MINISTERIAL EDUCATION. 51 

resist the pressing solicitations from every quarter for preaching, with 
unutterable pleasure we went out, laboring day and night, until our 
bodies were worn down, and after all we could not supply one third of 
the places calling upon us for preaching. While thus engaged, and 
while the gracious work was still going on, we observed what was very 
remarkable, that in almost every neighborhood there was some one 
who appeared to have uncommon gifts for exhortation and prayer, and 
was zealously engaged in the exercises thereof, while the Lord wrought 
by him to the conversion of many. Viewing the infant state of the 
church in our country, the anxious desire for religious instruction, the 
gifts, diligence, and success of those we have mentioned, and the 
scriptural authority for exhortation, we were induced with almost 
every member in the presbytery, to open a door for the licensure of 
exhorters, well knowing it was a liberty that was, and would be 
taken; and concluding if taken by presbyterial authority it might pre- 
vent disorder and weakness. It was now agreed that any of those who 
might be licensed, and who manifested extraordinary talents and piety, 
should # be considered as candidates for the ministry; also, that for their 
improvement they should have subjects appointed, on which they were 
to be heard at our stated sessions of presbytery; that if, by their 
improvement, piety, and usefulness, they purchased to themselves a 
good degree, they might be set apart to the holy ministry. Accord- 
ingly, several made application, who were examined on experimental 
religion, and the motives inducing them to public exhortation. Those 
we judged qualified were then licensed. The first were all men of 
families, and somewhat advanced in years. Out they went, leaving 
wives and children, houses and lands, for Christ's sake and the gospel; 
suffering hunger, cold, and weariness, for weeks in succession, but the 
Lord was with them and made them happy instruments in helping on 
his work in the conversion of many. After a long trial of those men 
in different parts of our country, there came forward to our presbytery 
several petitions for their licensure to the ministry, signed by hundreds 
of the most moral and religious characters where they had labored. 

From our personal knowledge of those men's good talents, piety, 
and usefulness; from the numerous warm petitions of the people at 
large; from the example of many presbyteries; from the silence of 
Scripture on literary accomplishments; from your own declaration in 
answer to Mr. Rice's letter, viz.: "That human learning is not essential 
to the ministry;" from the exception made in the Book of Discipline, in 
extraordinary cases; we humbly conceived, that it would not be a trans- 
gression either of the laws of God or the rules of the church, to license 
men of such a description. We therefore did license them, and a few 
others at different times afterward; some of them with, and some with- 



52 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period i. 

out, literary acquisitions; but all men of gifts, piety, and influence, hav- 
ing spent years previous in exhortation, before they were admitted to 
the ministry. Several were licensed to exhort, whose names are on 
our Minutes, whom we never had a design of admitting to the minis- 
try. Now the work of the Lord went on. Numbers of young and 

promising congregations were formed So that in a few years 

the wilds of our country echoed with the praises of the Lord. Savage 
ignorance was changed into a knowledge of God and his dear Son; 
and savage ferocity into the lamb-like spirit of Jesus." 

James Hutchinson, Esq., of Montgomery County, Tennessee, 
gave to Dr. Cossitt a statement which will illustrate the circum- 
stances under which these men were first sent out. He says: 1 

We emigrated from Virginia in 1796, and settled where we now 
live, in 1797. Both my Sarah and I had been religiously raised and 
accustomed to read our Bible. Away from all our friends and in this 
then solitary place, we felt that we needed an Almighty Protector. We 
sought the one thing needful as for goodly pearls. In 1800 we trust 
we both embraced that holy religion which has been our guide and 
comfort up to the present hour. The country was filling up rapidly, 
but there was no one to break to us the bread of life. O how we did 
long to hear the blessed gospel preached! We joined with David 
Beaty and Henry Anderson in a petition praying Transylvania Presby- 
tery to send us a preacher. We were rejoicing in hope, but hungering 
for the word of God. We were Presbyterians, so far as we under- 
stood ourselves, and wanted to cast our lot with that people among 
whom God was carrying on his glorious work. The field was wide, 
the harvest plenteous, and the laborers few. A preacher could not 
come to us. We wept, we mourned, we prayed; we could take no 
denial. We petitioned again without success. Still we believed God 
would hear and help us. We could not be discouraged, seeing that 
God could, in answer to our prayers, incline the presbyters to favor us, 
if only a little. No mortal man can conceive our anxieties unless he 
has been placed in a like situation. 

We could hear of other places within ten, twenty, thirty miles where 
the people, like us, were petitioning for a preacher. Some of them 
had attended the great meetings in Kentucky or higher up in Tennes- 
see, and had returned glorifying God. We asked, Would not a God 
of love take care of his own cause and feed his own flock? .... We 
called to mind his precious promises and said, Surely he will. 

There are two periods in my life which I never can forget while I 

1 Life and Times of Ewing, pp. 70-77.] 



Chapter VII.] MINISTERIAL EDUCATION. 53 

remember any thing. One is when I found the Lord precious; the 
other is when, in answer to all our prayers, he sent his faithful servant 
to minister to our spiritual necessities. I often call to mind, as if it 
were but yesterday, the evening when a traveler, an entire stranger, as 
I supposed, rode up to my log-cabin. This house, built of stone, was 
not here then. His eyes were red with weeping, and the tears were 
scarcely dried on his cheeks. He inquired for James Hutchinson. On 
being informed that I was the man he seemed overjoyed. He said, " I 
have so long traveled this Indian path without seeing a house that I 
seriously feared it would be my lot to lie out this night and take my 
chances with the wolves. I have cried and prayed the Lord, my 
helper, .... and he has brought me to this hospitable home." I was 
filled with surprise and joy. I saw he was a man of genteel appear- 
ance, and, better still, his language savored of grace and piety. I had 
seen but few religious persons since I professed, and I greatly rejoiced 
that a pious traveler had done me the favor to call and spend a night 

with me at my cabin in the wilderness He soon took occasion 

to let me know his business in these parts, and that his name was Finis 
Ewing " Sarah, Sarah," I called. She was out preparing sup- 
per. Stepping to the door I said, "The preacher has come!" Sarah 
came in shouting, while I was crying for joy. God had answered our 
prayers and sent us a preacher! 

When we had become a little composed, Mr. Ewing modestly 
observed, "Do not mistake me, my friends; I am not a preacher, but 
have been sent in the place of one. I am authorized publicly to exhort, 
expound the Scriptures, and, according to my ability, give all needful 
instructions, without the formalities of a sermon." Being mere babes 
in Christ, we cared but little for the formalities of a sermon 

We had long felt that we were in the midst of a people who were 
living without hope and without God in the world, actually perishing 
for lack of knowledge. Without the gospel, without schools, and 
almost without a Sabbath, we shuddered at the thought of raising our 
children in such a state of society. 

Mr. Hutchinson gathered in his neighbors and Ewing preached 
and left another appointment. Hutchinson then accompanied him 
to other destitute neighborhoods. He speaks in strong terms 
about the great power of Ewing' s sermons at all these places. 

As for the other lay exhorters, each in separate fields, the one 
claiming attention next to Ewing is Samuel King. Like Ewing, 
he had been taken into the church while still unconverted; and, 
like Ewing, he had been truly converted afterward. Then he 



54 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period i. 

immediately began to exhort sinners. It is the general testi- 
mony that his exhortations were greatly blessed. While he 
had a circuit regularly appointed around which he traveled, he 
seems often to have wandered beyond its bounds. From the very 
first his heart yearned over the most destitute. Nor did he 
stop with the white settlements. An incident of his work among 
the Indians will be given here. It was furnished originally by 
his son, Judge R. M. King. King was addressing, through an 
interpreter, a large crowd of Choctaw Indians. The interpreter 
became so powerfully convicted that he could proceed no further, 
but like the sinners at McGready's meetings, he fell to the earth 
and began to cry for mercy. The preacher knew not what to do. 
He could speak none of their language, yet they were weeping all 
around him. He knew, though, that God could understand him. 
He fell to his knees and began to pray. While King prayed the 
interpreter was converted. Then the preacher had a new tongue. 
His sermon was blessed to the salvation of many souls before he left 
the place. To the visits of King to the Choctaws can be traced 
the conversion of our first native preachers among that people. 1 

But, returning to King's circuit, the indications are that it 
reached the wildest and sparsest portions of the field. He swam 
rivers; he slept often in the forest with his saddle-bags for a pil- 
low; he preached under the trees, where there was no house of 
worship. Thomas Callfoun testified that King was the first man 
in all the West to take his stand against whisky. 

All these men rode vast circuits on which they preached every 
day, besides riding from twenty to fifty miles on horseback. Rid- 
ing, too, when there were no bridges, ferry-boats, or even good 
wagon roads. It took them four months to make one round 
on these circuits. To many of the new settlers visited by them 
these circuit appointments, once in four months, were their only 
dependence for the gospel. Even the daring pioneers of Method- 
ism had not then reached some of these regions. 

Alexander Anderson had gifts, in some particulars, superior to 
all the others. One who knew him well gave a long written 
statement to Dr. Beard 2 testifying to his spiritual power. Speak- 

1 Beard's King. 2 Beard's Anderson. 



Chapter VII.] MINISTERIAL EDUCATION. 55 

ing of his selection by the presbytery he says: "They knew their 
man. They knew what he conld do in prayer, exhortation, and 
other religions exercises. Nor were they disappointed. ' ' He says 
there were still living a few who remembered Anderson's sermons 
and could repeat whole paragraphs of them, and still wept at the 
mention of his name, after he had been in heaven fifty years. It is 
reported of him that he foresaw the schism which was threatened 
in his church, and prayed God that he might be taken home before 
it came. His prayer was answered. 

Colonel Joe Brown gives this incident, as related to him by the 
father of the Rev. James B. Porter: u The Rev. Dr. Thomas Hall, 
while on his way to Natchez, where he had been sent as a mission- 
ary, stopped to rest a while in Sumner County, Tennessee. There 
he heard about these lay exhorters. He expressed himself in 
strong terms against the measure, and said he would see to it that 
the Presbyterian church should not be disgraced by lay preaching. 
That same night he attended a prayer-meeting at which Alexander 
Anderson exhosted. Dr. Hall was amazed. He said that man 
must preach. The Lord had some great work for him to do." 
[See Banner of Peace, March 16, 1856.] 

As for Ephraim McLean, he is not in the same category as the 
others. While he was received as a candidate in 1802, he was not 
willing to be placed on the list of exceptions to the educational 
requirements. What little he lacked of coming up to those 
requirements he believed he could make up by private study while 
on the circuit. It is this that explains the omission of his name 
in the passage quoted from Smith's history. But in all the list 
there was no truer hero for Jesus than McLean. When he pro- 
fessed religion he had a wife and four children, and was living in a 
floorless cabin built of round poles. When he felt himself called 
to preach the gospel, his heroic wife urged him on, both in his 
preparation for the work of the ministry and in the discharge of 
its sacred duties afterward. He went out on his circuits, year 
after year, preaching to people where no other minister came. He 
received no pay. His wife raised the wool, spun the thread, 
wove the cloth, and made the clothing which he wore on his cir- 
cuits. The anti-revival party sneered at his rough garments, but 



56 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period i. 

they will not sneer in the day of judgment, when they see him 
wearing a crown studded with many stars. His was not a long 
career. He fell just after the new church was organized, but his 
work lives on. He had two sons who were in the national Con- 
gress afterward, one a Senator. He has a grandson now in the 
ministry in our church, the Rev. E. G. McL,ean, of California. 

Some idea of the way in which the revival spread, and how God 
pointed out to the presbytery what men to select as evangelists, 
may be received from the following incidents: 

James B. Porter had educated himself for a physician. At Shi- 
loh camp-meeting, in Sumner County, Tennessee, 1801, -he found 
the Savior. Soon after the meeting his mother took him with her 
on a trip to South Carolina. At every house where they stopped 
on their journey, Porter told about the wonderful grace of God to 
his soul, and commended his Savior to the people. There were 
conversions all along the journey. On the return trip L,orenzo 
Dow had a public meeting in which he made Porter exhort, and 
God greatly blessed the exhortation. 

The case Of Alexander Chapman is similar. Soon after his con- 
version he went on a visit to his uncle in Virginia. On his arrival 
he found the family about starting to their weekly prayer-meeting. 
He accompanied them. After two or three prayers the way was 
opened for any one to read, or pray, or make remarks. Chapman, 
who had been brought up in the neighborhood, and whose profes- 
sion of religion was unknown there, rose and gave an exhortation. 
A revival began at once, and spread over the community until 
more than one hundred persons professed faith in Christ. Among 
these were several of his cousins, who lived many years to adorn 
the profession which they had made. The Rev. Mr. Robinson, the 
pastor in that community, gave his hearty indorsement to the 
young man's zeal and usefulness. 1 

Owing to the great distance between the two settlements which 
belonged to Transylvania Presbytery, the synod divided it, and cre- 
ated the Cumberland Presbytery. This presbytery embraced all 
the Green River and Cumberland settlements, and all that portion 
of the synod in which those grave differences of opinion had 

1 Bird's Life of Chapman, p. 35. 



Chapter VII.] MINISTERIAL EDUCATION. 57 

arisen, out of which, at last, "the Cumberland schism" sprang. 
As the Transylvania Presbytery had received into membership a 
Methodist by the name of Hawe, and as he resided in the bounds 
assigned to Cumberland Presbytery, the revival party, by his aid, 
had a majority of one. The new presbytery ordained Anderson, 
Ewing, and King. That gave the revival party a decided majority. 

Against all these measures in which men were employed as ex- 
horters or preachers without a classical education, the anti-revival 
party took a decided stand. Their protests in several instances 
were entered on the Minutes of the presbytery ; but the revival party 
were in the majority, and had things their own way for a season. 
The synod, however, came at last to the relief of the minority. 

This question about the Westminster standard of ministerial 
education being made a sine qua non for the pulpit, is a live ques- 
tion yet. So, too, is the question about how to conduct revival 
meetings. Three out of the four questions of that day are still 
debated; though with a growing majority in all three in favor of 
the views then taken by the revival party. On the fourth question 
(the ecclesiastical one), all parties concede now that the founders 
of our church were right. 

While we believe the course pursued by the revival party was 
wise and scriptural, we believe also that it has been abused by 
many of our presbyteries since. Three errors have prevailed. 
One, in overlooking "aptness to teach" and spirituality, which 
neither education nor the lack of it can ever supply. Another is in 
attributing the wonderful spiritual power of Calhoun and his asso- 
ciates to their lack of education. If lack of collegiate education 
gives this wonderful spiritual power, why is it that all the army of 
uneducated ministers in our church, and in other churches, to-day 
do not have it? The third error is in calling Ewing and Donnell 
and their comrades uneducated men, and holding up their example 
as an excuse for laziness and stupidity, as, alas! so many of our 
presbyteries have done. True, these men were not graduates 
of any college, and what scholarship they had was not obtained 
according to regulation methods, but for all that they were edu- 
cated men and profound thinkers. Their education came as Daniel 
Boone's did. They availed themselves of all the facilities in their 



58 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period i. 

reach. They carried text-books in their saddle-bags and studied 
at night. They studied men, and profoundly studied their English 
Bibles. Most that colleges do for men is to teach them how to 
think; these men had that lesson, no matter how they obtained it. 
Between these men .and the lazy boy of to-day who has it in his 
power to secure a college education and will not do it, there is no 
similarity at all, and their example is a rebuke rather than an apol- 
ogy to all such. 

Akin to this error of some of our own people is a slander from 
some who do not understand us. 4 ' They went out of the Pres- 
byterian church because they were opposed to education," is a 
threadbare slander still circulated. Many times utterly refuted, 
this slander is still peddled out as the most effective way of injur- 
ing our church. The real issue is not about the inestimable value 
of education, but about the propriety of allowing exceptions to 
the requirement of a classical education in cases of great pressure, 
like those of Ewing and King, when clearly demonstrated use- 
fulness on the part of the aspirant combines with a very great 
demand for his special services on the part of the destitute. 
Whether it was better to allow whole vast areas of destitute settle- 
ments to remain without the gospel entirely, or to send them sound 
teachers who loved souls and knew the way of salvation, though 
they did not know either Latin or Greek — that was the question. 

Neither the fathers of our church nor their sons failed to appre- 
ciate an educated ministry. It requires considerable grace patiently 
to argue such a proposition at this late day, but I think God will 
give me grace to do it. 

Proof i. Ephraim McLean was one of the fathers of our church. 
When he was ordered to prepare for ordination along with Ewing 
and King, he said: "Give me a little more time and I shall be 
able to come fully up to the standard. I am fully up now in 
every thing but Greek, and am working hard at that. ' ' x They 
granted his request, but with the understanding that he should pur- 
sue his studies on the circuit. This he diligently did. They cared 
for souls, but they cared for scholarship too. McLean then had a 
wife and six children, and was preaching without any compensa- 

Incidents furnished by his son, Finis E. McLean. 



Chapter VII.] MINISTERIAL EDUCATION. 59 

tion whatever. His wife and boys made their support on their 
Kentucky farm, and his wife with her own hands spun the thread 
and wove the cloth for his clothing. Our fathers thought it was 
worth while to endure trials that the perishing multitudes might 
have the gospel. Nor is this all in McL,ean's case. When his 
boys were old enough to go off to school he discussed the case with 
his noble wife, and fell upon a plan for their education. His wife 
took charge of the farm herself, and by heroic struggles and sacri- 
fices supported the family and kept her boys at school and her hus- 
band on the circuit. Was that husband opposed to education? 

Proof 2. All the men who took part in the organization of the 
Cumberland Presbyterian church left the strongest possible testi- 
mony that they held a thorough education in the highest esteem. 

Finis Ewing left his testimony in several forms. He spent 
large sums of money in establishing a classical school near his 
home in Kentucky, and that before the organization of our first 
synod; and when this school was established he would have none 
but thorough classical teachers in it. This was the first classical 
school in all that portion of Kentucky. 1 Afterward he sent his 
own son, who was then looking to the ministry, to college and 
gave him a thorough education. When he moved to Missouri he 
set to work to establish a school for the classical and theological 
education of the ministry in Missouri, and he filled his large 
house full of young preachers going to school, to whom he gave 
gratuitous boarding. 

Still further, when our first college was proposed, and the prac- 
ticability of establishing both a classical and theological college, 
with ample endowment, was under discussion, Finis Ewing made 
a speech in favor of the enterprise which Dr. Cossitt, a graduate of 
a New England college, who heard it, pronounced the ablest of all 
the pleas for an educated ministry that he had ever listened to. 
To his dying day Dr. Cossitt maintained, and published, and reiter- 
ated his declaration that he had heard no plea for an educated min- 
istry equal to Ewing' s great speech. Ewing wrote for the col- 
lege some of the ablest pleas I ever read. When I was president 
of Cumberland University, and struggling hard to lift the institu- 

1 Incidents reported by Hon. F. E. McLean. 



60 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period i. 

tion up from the wreck where the civil war had left it, the most 
telling appeal I made to our people in behalf of our college was 
made by republishing some of Finis E wing's pleas for old Cumber- 
land College. 

Samuel King traveled as agent for the endowment of our first 
college. Thomas Calhoun had a son who entered the ministry. 
He sent that son to college and afterward to a theological school. 
He nearly all his life was aiding some young preacher to obtain a 
college education. 

Samuel McAdow was himself a graduate, but his infirm health 
prevented his taking any very active share in any kind of work 
after the organization of the new church. 

Robert Donnell traveled as agent for our first college, at his 
own expense, and published many earnest pleas for it. He deliv- 
ered a course of lectures to the theological class at Lebanon, Ten- 
nessee. He declared a thoroughly endowed theological school to 
be a necessity of the church. He himself gave large sums to that 
endowment. In discussing the necessity of a thoroughly endowed 
college he says, in a letter published in the Banner of Peace, 
''^Without it we can not prosper as a body" 

All the first numbers of our church papers teem with earnest 
articles from those men who planted the church, urging the impor- 
tance of thorough education. 

Proof 3. Karly ecclesiastical action. The council formed by 
the revival preachers before the organization of our first presbytery 
addressed a letter to the General Assembly, in which they say: 
' ' We never have embraced the idea of an unlearned ministry. The 
peculiar state of our country and the extent of the revival reduced 
us to the necessity of introducing more of that description than we 
otherwise would. We sincerely esteem a learned and pious minis- 
try, and hope the church will never be destitute of such an orna- 
ment." 1 

The first presbytery of our church thought proper to place itself 
on record also. The very first year of that presbytery's existence 
it addressed a circular letter to the churches under its care, in 
which it told those churches, and all the others concerned in the 

1 Smith's History, p. 624. 



Chapter VII.] MINISTERIAL EDUCATION. 6l 

case, to have no fears of any laxness in educational requirements; 
declaring its purpose to require a classical education in all cases 
where that was practicable, and when, in exceptional cases and 
emergencies that was dispensed with, in no case to dispense with 
a thorough English education. 1 

Our first presbytery, the first year of its existence, commenced 
raising money to educate its young preachers. It instructed those 
who came as candidates, while still young enough to secure an 
education, to go to school first. Philip McDonnold was a poor 
boy, who had shown his eagerness for an education before he 
applied to presbytery to be received as a candidate. Presbytery 
determined to receive him and defray the expenses of his thorough 
education, and it carried out this determination. This was the 
first year of that presbytery's life and its first official act about edu- 
cation. The official records of our first three presbyteries abound 
in strong declarations of the great importance of an educated min- 
istry, and declare it to be " absolutely necessary for us to have a 
college of our own. ' ' 

A convention of delegates from the presbyteries met in 1822 to 
consider the question of a college for the church. See Minutes of 
Elk Presbytery, and other minutes. Three years before we had a 
General Assembly, those founders of our church, who traveled in 
homespun clothing made by their wives, and carried text-books in 
their saddle-bags while they went seeking the lost among the 
pioneer settlements, established, through the General Synod, a col- 
lege for the education of young preachers. Our later work need 
not now be mentioned. 

A curious fact of history deserves now to be noticed. It is this: 
During the first twenty years of our existence, what was called 
"the anti-revival party" of the mother church strenuously denied 
that lack of classical education was one of the charges against us. 2 
Heresy and disorderly conduct in revival meetings were then asserted 
to be the offenses. Our church had, at first, no theological litera- 
ture, and it was an easy matter to make people who knew us not 

J Dr. Frizzell's Semi-centennial Pamphlet, p. 14. 

2 See "The anonymous pamphlet of Kentucky Synod;" J. L. Wilson's letters 
in The Standard, 1832; Religious and Literary Intelligencer, April 5, 1832, etc. 



62 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period i. 

believe that we held horrible heresies. Not only were we charged 
privately and publicly with the grossest heresies, but also with the 
most abominable practices in our meetings. Good and true men 
who lived where we were unknown believed these reports which 
appeared in pamphlets and newspapers, and repeated them in dig- 
nified volumes. The Rev. J. L. Wilson, D.D., who was one of the 
commission, and who never ceased to pursue and persecute u the 
Cumberlands" till he was called to his final account, wrote a long 
article for his church paper in 1832, taking the same ground, and 
declaring the statement in Buck's Theological Dictionary about the 
educational issue to be a falsehood. David Lowry, then editing 
our church paper, replied to Dr. Wilson, and argued that education 
was one of the issues. [See Religious and Literary Intelligencer, 
April 5, 1832.] 

How the winds do change! Now the cry is that the question 
of ministerial education was the real cause of the schism, and the 
doctrinal difference is ignored or denied altogether. Once we were 
charged with denying the atonement, denying original sin, deny- 
ing imputation, 1 and with various similar heresies. Now it is 
asserted even by the New York Observer that practically, and in 
our pulpits, " there is no difference. " It would not be hard to 
point out the reason for this shifting of the winds, but it would not 
be edifying. No harm comes to us from these charges. The taunts 
about education have done us good. Let us go on our way trying 
to please God, and pay no attention to any misrepresentations 
which men may make of us or our doctrines. 

The main question stands to-day about where it did in 1800. 
Many millions are perishing for lack of the gospel. It is a modern 
thought, revived from New Testament examples, after a long sleep, 
that the gospel is to be carried with the utmost zeal and speed to 
every perishing human being. To shut it up in a select circle, and 
deliver it officially from stately pulpits with learned illustrations 
and elegant diction before cultivated audiences, may suit the tastes 
of ambitious ecclesiastics; but there is a far more stirring view of 
its solemn mission which is beginning to break in upon the vision 

1 See Dr. Wilson's charges quoted in Religious and Literary Intelligencer, Feb- 
ruary and April, 1832. See also Pittsburgh Herald, 1835, fcissim. 



Chapter VII.] MINISTERIAL EDUCATION. 63 

of modern churches. The appalling spectacle of a city on fire pre- 
sents no such stirring appeals for sympathy and assistance as do 
the millions of our fellow-men who are now perishing in their sins. 
There is no time to lose. Our generation will be beyond the reach 
of the gospel when we pass away. 

God is dealing with the churches of this day. While lay evan- 
gelism has been abused, it is manifest that God is in it. Educate ? 
Yes, to the utmost. Let all secure the best training possible. 
When good men have spirituality and aptness to teach, and feel it 
to be their duty to proclaim salvation to lost men, but have no 
opportunity to secure a classical education — hold them back? 
No, never. 

Who would blot out the record of Moody's work? Ah! even 
Dr. McCosh, at staid old Princeton, gives Moody a hearty welcome 
to those classic seats; and God uses Moody even there. Yes, and 
uses him at the grand old colleges of England, too. 

The Southern Presbyterian church, which has been so wonder- 
fully conservative, is seriously considering the propriety of chang- 
ing its standard on this subject. . A standing committee has been 
appointed to investigate the question. A long circular has been 
sent out by one of that committee, ably advocating the change. 
This circular shows that the ratio of increase in a hundred years 
between the Presbyterian and Methodist churches is as 47 to 105 1. 
It shows that "aptness to teach," which is a Bible qualification, is 
not proved by the possession of a college diploma, which is not. 
Indeed, there is no essential connection between the two. It shows 
that the evangelization of the masses was not in the plans of the 
Westminster Assembly. 

The one great question which the awakened Christianity of to- 
day has to settle is how best to evangelize the masses. This one 
great work will require the diligent use of all the church's forces. 
We have not a man or a woman to spare. In some sphere or other 
all are to help. Men, women, and little children are all to share in 
this activity for Jesus. God will lead each trusting soul, and indi- 
cate to each one who is pliant in his hands just what work to do. 
Consecrated workers in still 1 greater numbers, we trust, are coming 
up to give heart and life, tongue and pen, to the service of the 



64 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period i. 

King. Ecclesiastical courts may advise and help, they may pray 
for and defend them ; they may and they will soon be forced to pro- 
vide a place in their ecclesiastical machinery for this uncanonical 
army, which cares a thousand times more for souls than it does for 
church canons and rubrics. The churches which refuse to do so 
will go into the same category with the Jewish church after it 
rejected its own Messiah. 

One measure which is both scriptural and canonical needs to be 
revived by all the presbyteries; that is the policy of licensing cat- 
echists or exhorters. If that had been diligently, followed, many 
of the embarrassing questions of the present day would have been 
forestalled. 

Another step will have to be taken. God in his providence has 
sent us back to learn over again the teachings of his word about 
woman's sphere in helping on the gospel. 

When Mrs. Ranyard, unaided by any ecclesiastical recognition, 
by the simple prayer of faith secures the necessary means and 
employs two hundred Bible-women to labor all the time for Jesus 
among the outcast portions of London ; and when God blesses these 
labors to thousands of perishing souls, what church court would 
dare come in with its ecclesiastical gag to stop these women's 
mouths? 

When Elizabeth Clay, leaving her aristocratic home among the 
high-churchmen of England, goes to heathen India, and year after 
year makes a regular circuit of a thousand miles preaching Jesus 
to the women of heathendom, and God uses her in leading many 
to salvation who never heard the gospel from other lips, shall any 
mitered churchman dare interpose his ecclesiastical gag, and say to 
this devoted woman, Stop! this is not canonical? 

One of the bitter complaints against the revival methods of 
1800 was that women would "get happy," and even dare to exhort 
sinners in church and in public. It was to one such exhortation 
that the church and the country owes, under God, the conversion 
of that holy servant of Jesus, the Rev. James B. Porter. Would 
that we had more such women now. 

What, in my estimation, is needed in ecclesiastical courts is to 
provide for and lead this lay activity, and not sit still and be led 



Chapter VII.] MINISTERIAL EDUCATION. 65 

and superseded by it. For lack of fatherly direction (not suppres- 
sion), it has run into many hurtful errors, and may yet become 
extensively mischievous ; while with proper direction it may yet be 
the church's right arm of power. In saying this it is not intended 
to reflect upon or set aside the regular ministry, but rather to stir 
up their pure minds by way of remembrance. 
5 



66 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period i. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



THE THIRD DIFFICULTY — DOCTRINES — RESERVA- 
TIONS IN ADOPTING THE BOOK. 

The wages of sin is death; the gift of God is eternal life. 
Nell' mezzo del cammin. 1 — Dci7ite. 

THE young men, when licensed by the Cumberland Presby- 
tery, made reservations in adopting the Confession of Faith. 
They thought that a particular and limited atonement and uncon- 
ditional election amounted to fatality. They were willing to take 
the book ' ' for substance, ' ' after precedents which could be cited in 
great numbers, but they are of no value to us now. If the tradi- 
tional system of Calvinism, without any modern liberalizing, is to 
be maintained at all, then no reservation in the adoption of the 
book should be tolerated for one moment. Reservation is a leak 
in the dykes of Holland. The whole vast sea of modern thought 
presses on the barriers. ' ' If the book were not in existence, there 
is no modern church which would ever produce it. " 2 The one 
lingering hope is to hold the anchorage to ' ' the time - honored 
standards. ' ' How long that anchorage will hold time will reveal. 

There are meanings to the word fatality which all know do not 
attach to the Westminster Confession. There are others which 
many people still think apply to that book. Webster defines fate 
to mean, among other things, "A decree or word pronounced by 
God;" U A fixed sentence by which the order of things is pre- 
scribed;" "inevitable necessity." These are the popular and com- 
mon ideas of what fatality means: the doctrine of inevitable neces- 
sity. It carried the chief thinkers of the world once. Its reign 
took in the purest and best men of another age; but "Ilium juiL" 

I quote here an illustration of the doctrine which our fathers 

1 In the middle of the track. 

2 Dr. James H. Brooks said this in substance, if not ifsissimis verbis. 



Chapter VIII.] DOCTRINES. 67 

called fatality. The quotation is from grand old John Bunyan. 
' ' Is there ever a time in the life of a sinner, who is not one of the 
elect, when it is possible for him to repent and be saved? To this 
I answer emphatically, No." 1 This is the doctrine from which 
modern thought shrinks shivering away. If this doctrine be not 
in the Westminster Confession, then there are some very unfortu- 
nate paragraphs in the book which greatly need to be changed. 

Our fathers believed that no man is sent to hell without having 
a chance to be saved. They preached the doctrine of a general 
atonement, and the operation ot the Holy Spirit on all men. 

And now I come to a vital part of this history. The one 
supreme difficulty which coicld not be reconciled, and which still 
stands an insuperable obstacle to a reunion, is this doctrinal 
difficulty. 

Dr. Davidson, in his history of " the Cumberland schism," 2 says: 
"It was not the want of classical learning, but unsoundness in 
doctrine, the adoption of the Confession with reservations (charge 
second, as already alluded to), that created the grand difficulty; and 
the removal of this would have wonderfully facilitated the accom- 
modation of the other." 

Samuel Hodge was one of "the young men." His literary 
qualifications were much lower than Ewing's or Anderson's, but 
when he agreed to adopt the Confession without reservation, he 
was taken back, and allowed to continue his ministry. All the 
young men who were involved in this difficulty, after some delay, 
made an offer to the Transylvania Presbytery that they would yield 
on all other points, and come back in a body, 3 if they might still 
be allowed to make this reservation about fatality; and their offer 
was rejected. 

Two charges were brought officially against these preachers by 
the commission of Kentucky Synod: (1) That they were illiterate; 
(2) That they held erroneous doctrine. 4 In the apology for their 
proceedings, made by the members of Kentucky Synod to the Gen- 

1 This quotation is given from memory. 

2 Davidson's History Presbyterian church in Kentucky, p. 255. 3 Ibid., p. 256. 

■♦Davidson's History Presbyterian church in Kentucky, p. 239, where the Min- 
utes of the Commission are quoted. " Not only illiterate, but erroneous in senti- 
ment," is the wording. 



68 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period i. 

eral Assembly, they stated explicitly that unsoundness in doctrine 
constituted the chief difficulty; and they deny that the lack of 
classical education was the greatest difficulty. 1 

The General Assembly, in 1814, gave a deliverance about the 
Cumberland Presbyterians, in which the following words were used: 
"The grounds of their separation were that we would not relax 
our discipline and surrender important doctrines. 2 [Italics mine.] 

The members of the council, after the Assembly gave its final 
decision against them in 1809, sent two commissioners to negotiate 
with the synod for a reconciliation. The terms laid down by the 
members of the synod, on which they were willing to be reconciled, 
included an unconditional adoption of the Confession of Faith. 3 

In 181 1 there were three other ecclesiastical deliverances about 
this doctrinal difficulty. The West Tennessee Presbytery and the 
Muhlenberg Presbytery (Presbyterian) undertook to secure a recon- 
ciliation. First, they addressed, through an unofficial letter, some 
inquiries to the General Assembly about what terms could be 
accepted. The answer was, among other things, an unconditional 
adoption of the book. 4 

This doctrinal difficulty stands to-day the main barrier between 
the Cumberland Presbyterians and the mother church. Proof of 
this assertion can be found in the negotiations for organic union in 
1866 and 1867 with the Southern church, and 1873 and 1874 with 
the Northern church. In both of these negotiations (neither of 
which originated officially with the Cumberland Presbyterians 5 ), 
the Cumberland Presbyterian committees offered to surrender every 
existing difference except the doctrinal one. I have all the docu- 
ments before me, but need not make extracts now. In the plat- 
form of union submitted by the Cumberland Presbyterian commit- 
tee to the Southern church was a new creed, which contains about 
as much Calvinism as we ever hear in Presbyterian pulpits in mod- 
ern times, but that platform was not accepted. It went as far as it 
is possible for us to go. That platform proposed to take the West- 

1 Davidson's History Presbyterian church in Kentucky, p. 255. 

2 Digest, p. 157. 3 Smith, pp. 635, 681. 
4 Baird's Digest, pp. 157, 645. 

s Presbyterian General Assembly Minutes (South), 1866, p. 30. Presbyterian 
General Assembly Minutes (North), 1873, p. 485. 



Chapter VIIL] DOCTRINES. 69 

minster Confession entire, except the third, fifth, and eighth chap- 
ters for which it offered the following substitutes: 

Chapter III. — Of God's eternal decrees. 

Section 1. God did from all eternity adopt the whole plan of his 
creation and providence with a full knowledge of all the events which 
would transpire therein, including the sins of men and angels. These 
events he determined either to bring to pass by his own direct and abso- 
lute agency, or to permit them to come to pass in view of the results 
which his bounding and overruling providence would bring out of the 
whole plan. 

Section 2. According to the determinate counsel and foreknowledge 
of God, he did from all eternity elect to salvation all true believers in 
Jesus Christ. This election was perfectly definite as to the persons 
elected, and also as to their number: and God did in like manner from 
eternity reprobate to eternal perdition all that finally reject Jesus Christ, 
and this reprobation was also definite as to person and number. 

Section 3. Those of mankind that are predestinated unto life, God, 
before the foundation of the world was laid, according to his eternal 
and immutable purpose and the secret counsel and good pleasure of his 
will, hath chosen in Christ unto everlasting glory, out of mere free 
grace and love, all to the praise of his glorious grace. 

Section 4. As God hath appointed the elect unto glory, so hath he 
by the eternal and most free purpose of his will, foreordained all the 
means thereunto. Wherefore they who are elected, being fallen in 
Adam, are redeemed by Christ, are effectually called unto faith in 
Christ by his Spirit working in due season, are justified, adopted, sanc- 
tified, and kept by his power through faith unto salvation. 

Section 5. The doctrine of this high mystery of predestination is to 
be handled with special prudence and care, that men attending the will 
of God revealed in his word and yielding obedience thereunto, may 
from a certainty of their vocation be assured of their eternal election; 
so shall this doctrine afford matter of praise, reverence, and admiration 
of God, and of humility, diligence, and abundant consolation to all that 
sincerely obey the gospel. 

We make the same references which are made in the Presbyterian 
Confession of Faith, with the addition of 1 Peter i. 2, and Romans 
viii. 29. 

Chapter V. We offer the following modification for section fourth: 

Section 4. The almighty power, unsearchable wisdom, and infinite 
goodness of God, so far manifest themselves in his providence, that it 
extendeth itself not only to those acts which God absolutely decrees, 
but also to those which he permits, joining with it a most wise and 



7° Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period i. 

powerful bounding, and otherwise ordering and governing them in a 
manifold dispensation to his own holy ends. 

Chapter VIII. We offer the following as a substitute for section 
eight: 

Section 8. Although Jesus Christ tasted death for every man, accord- 
ing to the Scriptures, yet the benefits of this death are savingly applied 
to those only who are chosen unto life through sanctification of the Spirit 
and belief of the truth; but to all those thus chosen these benefits are 
so applied as to insure their eternal salvation. 

We offer the tenth chapter in the Cumberland Presbyterian Confes- 
sion of Faith, instead of the tenth chapter in the Presbyterian Confes- 
sion of Faith. 

In chapter seventeen we offer this change in section second: substi- 
tute for the phrase "not upon their own free will," the phrase "not 
upon their own ability or merit." 

Finally, we propose to modify certain expressions in the Catechisms, 
so as to make them correspond with the changes indicated in reference 
to the Confession of Faith. 

As far as possible trie wording of trie old book was retained, 
even when it required some explanation to fit that wording into 
the general scheme. The tenth chapter, on effectual calling, in 
our book differs from the old in the meaning put on the word 
1 ' calling. ' ' Whether the hard places in the Westminster Confes- 
sion be justly called fatality or not, they are too hard for us. We 
believe the doctrine of grace, but we think it needs to be restated. 

One fact most clearly pointing to this necessity is that there are 
no Calvinists now of the type which composed the majority of the 
Westminster Assembly. Leaving Supralapsarian and Infralapsa- 
rian questions all out of the discussion, it is plain to all who study 
the writings of the Westminster divines that many of them be- 
lieved, as Calvin before them did, that there are infants in hell. 
No modern Presbyterians believe any such a thing. No man dare 
preach any such a doctrine now. 

In the first draft of Westminster doctrines, the majority stated 
their creed, "elect of infants." The liberal party objected. To 
compromise matters, the statement was so modified that both par- 
ties might claim it, but with a very decided advantage given to the 
interpretation which the majority wished to put on the deliverance: 
" Elect infants" are saved. So of other places. The creed is a 



Chapter VIII.] DOCTRINES. 7 1 

compromise, but always with an immense advantage given to the 
views of that hyper-Calvinistic majority. 

In modern times it is the hardest surviving type of rigid Cal- 
vinists who insist on an unconditional adoption of the creed. The 
liberal party insist on the phrase, ' * for substance. ' ' Robert Shaw 
had easy sailing in interpreting the book according to the hard old 
traditional Calvinism. Dr. Morris and Dr. Schaff have a hard time 
of it trying to fit the liberal system to the book. True, it can be 
done; but the process by which it is done is itself objectionable. 

A genuine Calvinist of the liberal school gave utterance to this 
same view of the case while advocating before his presbytery a 
change in some of the hard places in the book. This Calvinist 
was the Rev. Dr. MacCrae, of the United Presbyterian church of 
Scotland. His speech was made in 1876, and reported by the press. 
He says: 1 U I am aware that every doctrine in the book can be 
defended or explained away. But some of the casuistry employed 
for this purpose is as discreditable as the doctrine it is used to 
defend. For instance, the Confession says ' elect infants ' are saved. 
The other side of the doctrine obviously is that non-elect infants 
are cast into hell. This was not only, in former days, admitted 
and preached, but within the memory of fathers and brethren in 
this presbytery, one of the most eminent ministers of our church 
was like to have been brought before the church courts for deny- 
ing it. ' ' 

When the Synod of Diospolis arraigned Pelagius for heresy, one 
of the charges brought against him was that he taught that unbap- 
tized infants dying in infancy are saved. It is vain to deny that 
the world, including the Calvinists, has been drifting slowly away 
from this and other hard doctrines since Pelagius. 

Another proof that some of the hard expressions of the old 
book need to be changed, is found in the outburst of protest 
against it coming from real Calvinists whenever the spirit of evan- 
gelism comes upon them. To quote all these protests would fill 
many a volume. As Dr. Phelps (speaking of these stern doctrines) 
says: "A preacher .... finds them to be incumbrances upon the 
working power of the pulpit." Whenever his heart grows warm 

1 Quoted from the Evangelical Repository, March, 1877. 



72 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period i. 

with the gospel he begins to feel that something is wrong in the 
creed. Thus Dr. Chalmers breaks forth: 

The commission put into our hands is to go and preach the gospel 
to every creature under heaven, and the announcement sounding forth 
to all the world from heaven's vault was, Peace on earth, good-will to 
men. There is no freezing limitation here, but a largeness and munifi- 
cence of mercy, boundless as space, free and open as the expanse of 
the firmament ! We hope, therefore, that the gospel, the real gospel, 
is as unlike the views of some of its interpreters as creation in all its 
boundless extent is unlike the paltry schemes of some wretched scho- 
lastic of the middle ages. The middle age of science and civilization 
is now terminated; but Christianity also had its middle age, and this, 
perhaps, is not yet fully terminated. There is still a remainder of the 
old spell, even the spell of human authority, and by which a certain 
cramp or confinement is laid upon the genius of Christianity. We can 
not doubt that the time of its complete emancipation is coming, .... 
but meanwhile there is, as it were, a stricture upon it, ... . and by 
virtue of which the largeness and liberality of Heaven's own purposes 
have been made to descend in partial and scanty droppings through 
the strainers of an artificial theology, instead of falling, as it ought, in 
a universal shower upon the world. 1 

That stanch leader among modern Calvinists, Dr. Philip SchafF, 
of Union Theological Seminary, says of the Westminster Confes- 
sion: " Predestination to death and damnation .... ought never 
to be put in the creed or Confession of the church, but should be 
left to the theology of the school. ' ' 2 Again, he says of the sev- 
enth section of the third chapter: "This seventh section is one 
dark spot on the Confession, and mars its beauty and usefulness." 3 
He has many other expressions showing that he holds the doctrine 
of grace in much the same sense that Cumberland Presbyterians do. 
Many conscientious men who hold about the same views which are 
preached by men like Dr. SchafF are, nevertheless, too conscientious 
to adopt the Westminster Confession. One of our men was talking 
with a modern Calvinist, when the latter said to him, "Why, you 
preach as much Calvinism as I do. You would have no difficulty 
in our church." The answer was, " O the ministry in your church 
is like a bottle: there is room enough when you get in, but there 

x Inst., Vol. II., ch, vi. 2 Creeds of Christendom, Vol. I., p. 791. 
3 Creeds of Christendom, Vol. I., p. 792. Note. 



Chapter VIII.] DOCTRINES. 73 

is such a narrow neck to pass through before you get in." Yes, 
that is the trouble. 

Cumberland Presbyterians believe pretty much the same doc- 
trines that the liberal modern Calvinists preach, but they can not 
get through the neck. They believe in total depravity. They 
believe that man is utterly unable to come to Christ till he is 
drawn by God's Spirit. They believe that all the initiative steps 
toward salvation are from God. They believe that even infants 
need regeneration. They believe the theory of justification by 
faith alone. They believe in the imputed righteousness of 
Christ. They believe that the Christian's legal standing is in 
Jesus and not in works. They believe that God's overruling 
providence extends to every thing, but is not the author of every 
thing. They believe in the perseverance of the saints, but they 
can not take that third chapter of the Westminster Confession. 
They would have no difficulty in accepting the doctrinal decla- 
ration x of the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland, if it were 
not for the book to which it is appended. 

One trouble with all of us is that we want our creeds to be 
theodicies. When man knows all that God knows then he may 
write a theodicy, and not till then. As Dr. Schaff says, the West- 
minster Confession attempts to give deliverances on matters that 
ought never to go into a church creed. As Dr. Phelps says, that 
book contains doctrines which we can not use in our work for 
Jesus. While the Cumberland Presbyterians aimed at making a 
working creed, it is a pity that they still exhibited some of the old 
penchant for making a theodicy. In the main, though, theirs is a 
creed for the pulpit and the mission. 

A typical fact exceedingly significant, is found in the debates 
of the Belfast council of Presbyterians about the admission of our 
delegates. A precious Presbyterian missionary to the heathen was 
the mover and the advocate of our admission. A Presbyterian 
preacher who, it is said, has charge of no congregation — a scholas- 
tic Calvinist — was the chief opponent to our admission. Both 
he and Dr. Worden, of Philadelphia, in their remarks, betrayed 

1 Declaration of 1879. I have a copy in the handwriting of its author, sent me 
by Dr. Ferguson, of Glasgow. 



74 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period i. 

the profoundest ignorance of the transactions of their own General 
Assemblies, and provoked Dr. Morris, of Lane Seminary, to give 
them a whack over the shoulders which was heard clear across the 
Atlantic. 

Workers, wherever we find them, who have their hearts set on 
the salvation of lost men, extend to Cumberland Presbyterians the 
most hearty co-operation. Even at a time when the ecclesiastical 
bitterness which "the Cumberland schism" produced was still a 
burning fire in Kentucky, the Presbyterian missionaries then in 
Mississippi Territory passed resolutions inviting the Cumberland 
Presbyterian church to send more preachers among them, and 
indorsing those already there. 1 Yes, this is our place, our field, 
our mission, beside those live workers who are struggling for 
souls. God never called us to scholasticism. Writing theodicies 
is not in our commission. Working for souls with all our 
forces is. 

Side by side with every man that loves Christ more than all 
other things, to struggle for the evangelization of the world, is the 
high calling which God has given to the Cumberland Presbyterian 
church. With all our forces used, whether more or less learned; 
with all our creed, practical and available for the pulpit, to take 
our places in the solemn, thrilling struggle for those now perish- 
ing, is the mission to which God calls us. If aught in our policy 
or in our creed fits not into this mission, let it be abandoned. With 
sweet confidence to go wherever there are lost men, and without 
any "freezing limitations," to preach Christ, not theories about 
him, not works, not doctrines, but a personal divine Deliverer 
who will save all that accept and trust him — this is our first 
mission. 

Our second mission is also Christ — to preach him to the Chris- 
tian; Christ dwelling in us; realized by faith, as the way of victory 
over all evil habits, as the way of sanctification. To preach, not 
works, not self, not some imparted power, not some second con- 
version, not theories about sanctification, not growth, but that 
"same Jesus" who dwells in us, trusted for victory over sin's 
power, just as he was trusted for victory over sin's penalty, and 

1 Revivalist, April 17, 1833. 



Chapter VIII.] DOCTRINES. 75 

this also without any "freezing limitation" — this is our second 
mission. 

Our third mission is also Christ — to preach the indwelling God, 
not some imparted thing, but Christ in us, realized by faith as 
the way of all power for service, with no "freezing limitation." 
Not human attainments, but Christ accepted and installed as King 
within, and his presence realized by faith, and his promise, "I 
will never leave thee nor forsake thee, ' ' clung to and believed in, in 
spite of all failures, not on account of the dead covenant of works, 
but on account of the everlasting covenant of grace — ah, this 
made our first preachers a race of invincible heroes! In this work, 
and with a faith like this, we can never make a failure. 

In all three of these missions both the extremes between which 
we steer our way present "freezing limitations." If works are to 
be relied on in either of the three, then the limitation comes from 
the rottenness, and imperfections, and uncertainties of all human 
works. If the "unalterable necessity" of "unconditional" the- 
ology be the iron fence that bounds our hopes, then the "freezing 
limitation" in all three of these missions comes from that iron 
fence. 

Our theology is belief in the boundless divinity of the 
Redeemer, able, ready, and willing, in each of the three missions, 
on the simple condition of trust and nothing else to give us the 
victory. No preparation is necessary, no human scaffolding up to 
salvation or other blessings, but Christ trusted just as we are. Our 
starting point is not God's eternal and unrevealed decrees, nor 
man's will nor man's powers, but Christ and his divine power, and 
his dying love, and his unfailing promises, and his gracious invi- 
tations. This is the tried corner-stone of our system. 

Christ is the truth as well as the way. A theological school 
may cover a student all over with theories about Christ, and hide 
a personal Savior from his eyes so as to send him out at last a mere 
proclaimer of theories. Or it may be an institution conducted by 
men who are themselves filled with all the fullness of God; who 
not only know the power of the indwelling Savior, but have expe- 
rience and success in leading others to that knowledge; and they 
may lead their pupils on and up in the blessed experience of the 



76 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period i. 

divine life till those pupils, when they go out into their life-work, 
will be an army filled with divine power. The latter is the only 
type of a theological school which will ever fit into the Cumber- 
land Presbyterian system, or be in harmony with Cumberland 
Presbyterian antecedents. From all others may the good Iyord 
deliver us. 



Chapter IX.] THE COMMISSION. 



CHAPTER IX 



FOURTH DIFFICULTY— TRAMPLING ON A PRESBYTE- 
RY'S CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS BY A SYNODICAL 
COMMISSION. 

In vain they smite me; men but do 
What God permits with different view; 
To outward sight they wield the rod, 
But faith proclaims it all of God. 

— Madame Guy on. 

THE two parties in Cumberland Presbytery got further and 
further apart. The ' ' anti-revival ' ' party was in a hopeless 
minority in the presbytery, but it had a large majority in the Ken- 
tucky Synod. In 1805 that synod appointed a commission of ten 
ministers and six elders to meet at Gasper River meeting-house and 
investigate the proceedings of Cumberland Presbytery and take 
such action as the case required. This commission was composed 
of all the men in the "anti-revival" party of the synod who had 
rendered themselves most obnoxious to the other party. Whether 
justly or not, the revival party believed that the work aimed at by 
the commission was not the correction of abuses, but the suppres- 
sion of the revival. All the preachers and probationers for the 
ministry belonging to the revival party of Cumberland Presbytery 
received a regular citation to appear before this commission. Most 
of them obeyed. The commission met December 3, 1805. 

I have before me a full copy of the proceedings of the commis- 
sion, taken from the record book by Lowry and Smith, while they 
were editing the church paper. The words of the charges are 
these: 

They did license a number of young men to preach the gospel, and 
some of them they ordained to preach the gospel and administer ordi- 
nances in the church, contrary to the rules and regulations of the Pres- 
byterian church in such cases made and provided; and, whereas, these 



78 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period i. 

men have been required by said presbytery to adopt the said Confes- 
sion of Faith and Discipline of said church no further than they believe 
it to be agreeable to the word of God, etc. 

These charges are repeated, in substance, three times in the 
records of the commission, and are, in substance, just what Dr. 
Davidson makes them. The General Assembly paraphrased the 
charges thus: "Licensing and ordaining a number of persons, not 
possessing the qualifications required by our Book of Discipline 
and without explicit adoption of our Confession of Faith. ' ' 

No prosecutor was named. No specifications were made, but 
on these general charges the commission required the Cumberland * 
Presbytery to submit all its probationers for the ministry, and also 
four of its ordained ministers, to the commission for re-examina- 
tion. To this requirement the majority of the presbytery refused 
to submit, claiming that the constitution of the church made the 
presbytery the sole judge of the qualifications of its own probation- 
ers, and that no other church court had a right to arraign and try 
one of that presbytery's ordained ministers. 1 It was not a case of 
appeal or of reference. No charges had ever been brought against 
these four ordained ministers in their own presbytery. Neither the 
synod nor its commission had any right to originate process of trial 
in these cases. 

The commission then appealed to "the young men," as the 
accused were called, to come forward and submit to the examina- 
tion. The young men asked leave to retire and pray for divine 
direction. Their request was ridiculed, but a telling speech by a 
layman in favor of granting the request turned the current, and 
they were allowed to retire. Bach went alone to the woods for 
silent prayer. Each returned alone. Bach one separately declined 
to submit. Then the commission forbade all of them to preach 
by virtue of any authority received by them from Cumberland 
Presbytery. Bwing and King, however, did not receive their 
licensure from Cumberland Presbytery. Of course that fact was 
forgotten by the commission. The other young men placed under 
the interdict were numerous, including several mere catechists who 
never aspired to the work of the ministry; but those whose names 

1 Discipline, ch. v. sec. 2. 



Chapter IX.] THE COMMISSION. 



79 



are of special interest to our people were Robert Guthrie, James 
B. Porter, David Foster, Hugh Kirkpatrick, Thomas Calhoun, 
Robert Bell, Ephraim McLean, Alexander Chapman, and William 
Moore. 

But the commission had no right to originate process against a 
minister, nor to suspend or depose a minister. Its action was ille- 
gal, unconstitutional, null, and void. Precedents away back in the 
state church of Scotland are quoted, but there is not one of these 
precedents that does not reek with the odors of state tyranny, over- 
riding and subduing the lawful church courts. Riding commit- 
tees, high courts of commission, and popery all go together. 

There was a written constitution in the Presbyterian church in 
America. No matter what was done in Scotland. No matter if 
the Westminster Assembly itself did ordain men to preach. In 
the constitution of the American Presbyterian church the sole and 
exclusive right to ordain was placed, where the Bible places it, in 
the hands of the presbytery. 1 Nor is there one single word in all 
the book giving that right to any other court. 

As to trial of a preacher, the constitution fixes that beyond all 
dispute. ' ( Process against a gospel minister shall always be entered 
before the presbytery of which he is a member. " (Discipline, 
ch. v. 2.) 

What then is the synod's redress when a whole presbytery goes 
wrong in its ordinations? It can dissolve that presbytery, and 
attach its members to some other. 2 

That intensely partisan history of the Presbyterian church in 
Kentucky, written by Dr. Davidson, has this remarkable concession 
about this commission: "Thus terminated one of the most inter- 
esting and important convocations ever known in the American 
church; without precedent, and, thus far, without imitation." 
[Italics mine.] It seems to be the accepted policy of the Presbyte- 
rian church now to obey the constitution, and restrict the right to 
originate process against a minister to his own presbytery. [See 
McPherson's Hand Book, pp. 141, 144, 146.] 

One significant fact is brought to light by Dr. Gasman' s valua- 
ble little book, " Origin and Doctrines,' ' pp. 77, 78, and that is that 

1 Form of Government, ch. x. sec. 8. 2 Ibid., ch. xi. sec. 4. 



8o Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period I. 

the very year in which the first presbytery of our church was organ- 
ized, the General Assembly of the mother church pronounced the 
assumptions of a synod to try a minister when there was no appeal 
— that is, to originate process of trial against a minister — unconsti- 
tutional. When asked the next year to reconsider the deliverance 
of the preceding year on this subject, the Assembly declined to do 
so, and adhered firmly to its former decision. [See Baird's Digest, 
PP. 447, 448, 468.] 

The General Assembly of 1807 disapproved this assumption of 
authority by the commission of Kentucky Synod, and if it had not 
been for the doctrinal trouble, an appeal to that Assembly would 
have settled all the difficulty. 

But no matter what the Assembly did or would have done, the 
revival party stood on their constitutional rights when they refused 
to submit to the commission's demands. In doing so they gave a 
check to popish usurpations in the Presbyterian church so decided, 
that there has been no effort since to repeat them in that particular 
way. 

Along with the traditions and written testimonies about this 
meeting of the commission at Gasper River church, come up two 
conflicting multitudes of angry voices, both, however, agreeing in 
two things: First, that u the young men" who were arraigned 
were prayerful, dignified, and firm. Second, that the chief mani- 
festations of bitterness against the commission were made by the 
people, and not by the revival preachers. To this Mr. Rankin, 
who never joined the Cumberland Presbyterians, was the only 
exception. 

For the popular feeling it would be easy to find an apology. 
The object of the commission was looked upon as one more effort 
to put a stop to the great revival. It was put in the same category 
with the visits to McGready's churches and McGready's members 
in 1798 by Mr. Balch, who went from house to house and from 
church to church, ridiculing the revival, and trying to embarrass 
the young converts. 

The place of meeting was unfortunate. The revival party had 
been shut out of that meeting-house, and had established their 
place of worship in the adjacent grove. Among the members of 



Chapter IX.] THE COMMISSION. 8l 

the commission were men who had been the fiercest partisans 
against the revival. Mr. Lyle, who had succeeded in winning pre- 
eminence as an unscrupulous enemy of the revival, and who had 
traveled among the revival churches, as they thought, " in the capac- 
ity of a spy, ' ' preached the opening sermon — if a harangue three 
hours long against the measures of Cumberland Presbytery may be 
called a sermon. Mr. Rankin, the most excitable of the revival 
party, harangued the people on the other side of the question, 
going for that purpose to the grove where the revival party had 
established their place of worship. 

The popular feeling of the neighborhood had been roused 
against "Mr. Lyle and his commission " to such an extent, that 
none of the people near the church out of which the revival party 
had been locked, would open their houses to the commissioners. 
Mr. Cameron, who had also won the title of ' ' the spy, ' ' was present 
with these commissioners. Joshua L,. Wilson, who to the day of 
his death pursued "the Cumberlands" with a malignity which 
would have disgraced a Romish priest in the days of Martin L,uther, 
was also one of the commissioners. But Rice and other conserva- 
tive men of the synod were not on the commission. 

The revival party complained much of the haughty and dicta- 
torial language used by the commission in all its demands upon 
them. It often reminded them that they were no longer where 
they were in a majority, and could have things their own way, but 
were standing at the bar of their masters, arraigned for trial. 

Ah! well; we have had enough of that. God rules. The actors 
in that scene have all long ago gone before a tribunal which never 
makes any mistakes. One thing we do know. God still used the 
revival party in leading poor sinners to their Savior. 



SECOND PERIOD. 



CHAPTER X. 



THE NEW CHURCH. 

Small, but a work divine, 
Frail, but of force to withstand, 
Year upon year, the shock 
Of cataract seas that snap 
The three-decker's oaken spine. 

— Maud. 

AFTER the commission had delivered its verdict, the revival 
party organized themselves into a council. They agreed on 
several things. First, that they would not cease preaching on 
account of any interdict of the commission; second, that they 
would refrain from official presbyterial action; third, that they 
would try to keep the revival churches alive and foster the revival ; 
and finally, that they would labor for a reconciliation with the 
synod and the Presbyterian church. 

The revival party failed to appeal from the decision of the com- 
mission, because they utterly repudiated its right of jurisdiction in 
trying and silencing ordained ministers. The next meeting of the 
synod put all chances of appeal in the prescribed form out of their 
power, by dissolving the Cumberland Presbytery and remanding all 
the parties and their complaints to Transylvania Presbytery. It is 
plain that no appeal could have relieved the doctrinal difficulty, 
though all the other difficulties might have been settled. 

The council spent four years in a vain struggle for reconcilia- 
tion. It was not God's will that any reconciliation should be 
affected. The council sent a letter of remonstrance to the General 
Assembly in 1807. The case was warmly debated. The Assembly 

(82) 



Chapter X.] THE NEW CHURCH. 83 

sent two letters, one to the synod approving some of its actions, 
but disapproving its assumption of right to originate trial against 
a minister, and advising the synod to revise its action. The other 
letter was to the members of the council, condemning their course 
in rejecting the doctrine of fatality, but expressing sympathy in 
other things. 

The synod did revise its action, but it re-affirmed its decisions; 
explaining, however, that its interdict against the ordained preach- 
ers was not meant for suspension in the technical sense. 1 

Owing to the failure of the synod to send up its Minutes, the 
case did not reach the Assembly again till 1809— not in the regular 
way, at least. The council, however, had a letter before the Assem- 
bly of 1808. To this letter an unofficial answer was sent. It was 
written by Dr. J. P. Wilson. It pronounced the commission uncon- 
stitutional, and advised an appeal in the regular way. 

In 1809 the Minutes of synod were sent up, accompanied by a let- 
ter from the synod, and John Lyle, the bitter enemy of the revival 
measures, was their bearer and defender. Lyle had, in a high de- 
gree, the donum lachrymarum — the gift of tears — and in his speech 
before the Assembly his weeping and his oratory carried the whole 
house. Dr. Davidson's account of I^yle's speech represents it as 
having completely turned the tide, so that the Assembly voted 
unanimously for sustaining all the actions of the synod, in this 
case, and added a vote of thanks to the synod for its fidelity. 2 Dr. 
Davidson uses these words about Lyle's speech: u Bursting into 
tears, he made a most impassioned appeal, and the Assembly were 
so affected that their final judgment was very different from that to 
which they had at first inclined. ' ' [History of church in Ken- 
tucky, p. 119.] The case was now finally and hopelessly decided 
against the revival party. 

In August of the same year, 1809, the council decided to make 
one final effort at reconciliation with the synod, and if that failed, 
then to organize an independent presbytery. The council sub- 
mitted to the synod its ultimatum, the chief point of which was that 
those who chose to do so should be allowed to make the reservation 

1 Davidson, p. 248. Minutes of the Synod, Vol. I., pp. 140, 142. 
■Davidson's History, p. 250. 



84 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period n. 

about fatality. To this the synod would not agree. The council 
met in October, 1809, and heard the synod's decision. McGready 
and Hodge being genuine Calvinists, withdrew and made terms for 
themselves with the synod. This left the council with only four 
ordained members — McGee, Bwing, King, and McAdow. McAdow 
was in feeble health, and had not been meeting with the council. 
The name of Rankin never appears on the rolls of the council at 
all. He went off to the Shakers. McGee drew back from carrying 
out the resolution to organize an independent presbytery. This 
left them without the constitutional number. They adjourned 
with the understanding that the solemn obligation into which they 
had entered to form an independent presbytery should remain 
in force till the next March, when, if a presbytery was not previ- 
ously constituted, the council was to be disbanded. 

Things looked gloomy. Bwing was willing to constitute with 
only two ordained ministers. James B. Porter, a licentiate, exerted 
himself to enlist a third. Bwing and King met together and went 
to the house of Bphraim McLean to consult with him. McLean's 
wife joined earnestly in the consultation. 1 This was the second 
day of February, 18 10. The party remained till a late hour that 
night at McLean's before reaching their decision, which was that 
they would go next day to the Rev. Samuel McAdow' s house, in 
Dickson County, Tennessee, and ask him to aid in ordaining 
McLean. It was a long ride, but they were at McAdow' s before 
night. McAdow hesitated. It was a grave step. He spent the 
whole night in prayer over the case. Next morning his face was 
all aglow with light. He said God had given him clear assurance 
that the proposed step was approved of Heaven. 

On the fourth of February, 18 10, they organized, or reorgan- 
ized, the Cumberland Presbytery, and ordained Bphraim McLean. 
Years afterward, on his death-bed, Mr. McAdow spoke of that action, 
and said that he had never since doubted the rectitude of their 
course in organizing that presbytery, and believed it was done 
under divine sanction and direction. 

Against these three men no charges had ever been brought by 
their own presbytery, which was the only ecclesiastical court to 

1 Incidents furnished by the Hon. F. E. McLean. 



Chapter X.] THE NEW CHURCH. 85 

which the written constitution of the church gave the right to 
originate process of trial against an ordained minister. The Ken- 
tucky Synod itself, after the action of its commission had been 
called in question by the General Assembly, explained that the 
action of the commission was not meant for suspension in the tech- 
nical sense of that word. 

Dr. Ely, who held a high position in the Presbyterian church, 
published a long article in the Philadelphian in regard to the Cum- 
berland Presbyterians. In this article he uses the following words : 
"Of these three men (Bwing, King, McAdow) it is admitted on all 
hands that they were never deposed from the Christian ministry. ' ' 
This whole article is published in the Revivalist of May 14, 1834, 
and brings to light the fact that the General Assembly sent a com- 
mittee to the Kentucky Synod to remonstrate with that body about 
the proceedings of its commission. Ah, well ! levies' tears set that 
all right afterward. 

After the organization of the new presbytery, a judicature of 
the mother church proceeded to silence or depose these three 
preachers, but these acts were as harmless as the bulls of the Pope 
hurled at Iyuther, after I^uther had renounced the Pope's authority. 
As the new presbytery grew, circulars and other publications were 
sent out warning the people that the new church had no right to 
administer ordinances. This provoked a smile from some, and 
drew forth from others a sharp reply. The reply held up in con- 
trast the ordination of the first Presbyterians by Roman bishops, 
with the ordination of Bwing, King, and McAdow by a regular 
presbytery. It pointed to the fact that a large majority of the 
Westminster Assembly divines got their ordination from a single 
bishop. It contrasted the first presbytery of the mother church, 
organized by Viret and Farel, with the organization of the Cum- 
berland Presbytery. It called attention to the fact that neither of 
these two men — Viret and Farel — had ever been authorized to 
ordain, but only to preach, when they proceeded to ordain Calvin. 
The efforts to break down the young church by this mode of attack 
utterly failed, and were soon abandoned. 

I have used the language of Dr. Davidson in calling this ' ' the 
Cumberland schism," but this epithet is misleading. Only four 



%6 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period ii. 

ministers came out of the mother church into ours at that time. 
The first meeting of the new presbytery had no churches repre- 
sented. The second meeting, regular, had just one. The third 
meeting had none. The fourth meeting, after a year of wonderful 
toil, had six. The fifth had eight. Several of these had been 
organized by the new presbytery. By and by some more of the 
churches, which had been with the revival party before the split, 
cast in their lots with the new church, but never enough of them 
to amount to a schism. The membership of the Cumberland Pres- 
byterian church to-day is, ninety per cent, of it, made up of con- 
verts won from Satan's dominion, and not of proselytes won from 
other churches. In the beginning it was an exceedingly little 
church. 

" The green tiny pine shrub shoots up from the moss, 
The wren's foot would cover it, tripping across, 
The beech-nut, down dropping, would crush it beneath; 
But warmed by heaven's sunshine and fanned by its breath, 
The seasons fly past and its head is on high, 
And its thick branches challenge each mood of the sky." 

Our concern now, and for the remainder of this history, is with 
the work of the new church. The new Cumberland Presbytery 
held four sessions the first year. At these four meetings it ordained 
four men to preach the gospel. Besides these four, William 
McGee came in. He had been with them in heart all the time. 
Never w a s there greater activity and zeal than the new presbytery 
manifested in trying to carry the gospel to everybody within its 
reach. Grand meetings were held; new churches were organized, 
and missionaries were sent into the most destitute regions, even of 
the mountain districts. Dr. J. Berrien Lindsley has rendered the 
church good service by publishing all the Minutes of the Cumber- 
land Presbytery, but ecclesiastical records can not be given here. 
Some important actions of the new presbytery must suffice. One 
of these was a last effort at reconciliation. Commissioners met for 
the purpose, but they not only failed, but made the breach wider, 
because our people refused to surrender their reservations about 
fatality. Another matter worth mentioning was the purchase of a 
circulating library by the presbytery for the benefit of its proba- 
tioners. This was a policy long kept up in all the presbyteries. 



Chapter X.] THE NEW CHURCH. 87 

Another was the temporary adjustment of the difficulties about 
"the union" with the Methodists, mentioned in a former chapter. 
Another, and a very important measure, was raising a fund for the 
education of some of its candidates for the ministry. 

There was in this presbytery, as there was in the other denom- 
inations of that day, a mode of dealing with probationers for the 
ministry which belongs now to the returnless past. The same feel- 
ing which gave rise to college laws requiring a freshman when he 
saw a senior approaching, to stand to one side, hat in hand, till the 
senior passed, and which required freshmen to black the seniors' 
boots, showed itself in all the treatment of boys, whether by 
parents, school-teachers, or presbyters. To curb, to humble, to 
train to physical endurance, and the endurance of wrongs and out- 
rages, was considered an essential part of the discipline through 
which a boy had to be taken. Authority was a tremendous thing 
in those days. A presbyter was an autocrat among the probation- 
ers, and woe be to that youth who, in presbytery or out of presby- 
tery, disregarded that autocrat. 

While this was the accepted rule in such matters, there were 
men whose naturally kind hearts made them, in the eyes of their 
stricter co-presbyters, grave defaulters in enforcing this system. I 
fear they felt very guilty when they remembered their delinquen- 
cies, but those delinquencies left a warm glow of hope and cour- 
age in many a poor boy's heart. About the close of this presby- 
terial period a new order of things came about. Men began to 
break the old regimen. At a later day still, spirits as sweet as an 
angel's, even in dealing with boys, were led by such genial souls 
as John L,. Dillard, George Donnell, and James K. L,ansden. 
What a thrill of gratitude comes along with the recollection of 
these blessed servants of God ! 

One more item about this first presbytery deserves commemora- 
tion. All its preachers had a thorough Presbyterian training, and 
were scarcely behind the Puritans themselves in their profound 
regard for the Sabbath. The customs of their families in this 
matter were regulated strictly by the Jewish law. No wood was 
gathered or carried, much less cut, on the Sabbath. No visiting, 
no pleasure-riding, no cooking, no strolling through the woods, no 



88 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period n. 

whistling, no traveling, except to church, no conversation or read- 
ing, except on religious subjects, was tolerated. If a child com- 
mitted an offense worthy of stripes the penalty was delayed till 
Monday morning. Stripes were not scarce in those days, except 
on the Sabbath. An illustration of this Sabbath observance is 
here given. In my boyhood I went to Thomas Calhoun's to 
board. My training on Sabbath observance had been of the mod- 
ern character. Sabbath morning came, and, seated in ' 'Aunt 
Polly" Calhoun's room, I picked up a newspaper and went to 
reading. Mrs. Calhoun stared at me a moment, and then said, 
" That's a political newspaper, sir." I wondered why she told me 
that. Did she think I had not sense enough to know what sort of 
paper it was? I read on. Presently "Aunt Polly" raised her 
glasses and, with an emphasis that frightened me, she said, "We 
don't read political newspapers on Sunday, sir." O I knew then 
why she told me what sort of paper it was. That was lesson num- 
ber one in a Presbyterian Sabbath. I counted those lessons by the 
hundred before my acquaintance with u Aunt Polly" closed. The 
precious, sterling, kind hearted old Puritan that she was! She 
used to put sugar in my sweet milk; she used to mend my clothes, 
and fill a mother's place to me, but she would not let me do wrong. 
I am thankful for that last item now more than for the sugar in 
my sweet milk. 

There was another candidate for the ministry boarding at Cal- 
houn's, going to school. One Saturday he went visiting, stayed all 
night, came to church next morning, and then came home. There 
was nothing said that day, but Monday morning before breakfast 
the Sabbath-breaker was called. The head of the household then 
began to clear his skirts of the disobedience to God which one who 
lived under his roof had been guilty of. That one had been away 
from home on a visit on the morning of God's holy day, not only 
sinning himself, but disturbing the Sabbath rest of others, and 
setting an example of Sabbath-breaking, all the more dangerous 
because a candidate for the ministry was its author. Worse still, 
the Sabbath-breaker lived under the authority, as well as under 
the roof-tree, of an old preacher, and might be supposed to repre- 
sent the views and practices which that old preacher tolerated. 



Chapter X.] T.HE NEW CHURCH. 89 

Turning to the offender with holy indignation, while those eagle 
eyes blazed with Sinai's fires, he shot words like bullets at the poor 
fellow till he quailed, and withered, and writhed like a tortured 
martyr flayed alive. The offense was not repeated by that boarder 
while he remained at Calhoun's house, although he was a mean 
man and never came to any good. Calhoun knew him and was 
intentionally severe. 

From the nature of the case the little handful of preachers who 
composed the presbytery could not settle down into permanent 
pastorates. In this, as in the matter of education, they wisely 
adapted their actions to their necessities. In both, that action has 
since been unwisely urged as a precedent under circumstances 
wholly different. In the true sense of the word pastor, there was 
none in the church till many years later. All the ministers of the 
second period were missionary evangelists. There is no grander 
chapter in all church history than the record of these evangelistic 
tours. Their circuits extended over vast fields, some of them five 
hundred miles in diameter. They were usually sent in pairs, one 
of the older men and one of the boys. They carried bell and 
* ' hobble ' ' for their horses ; crackers, cheese, and a tin cup for them- 
selves. To these were added blankets for a bed. If they found 
lodgings in a house it usually had but one room and they slept on 
their own blankets. In the morning the owner of the cabin would 
take his gun and go out to hunt meat for breakfast. Yet in such 
cabins they held grand meetings and organized churches which 
stand to-day in the midst of wealthy communities. In many neigh- 
borhoods the pioneer farmers were just planting their first crop. 

Robert Donnell held a camp-meeting near where Huntsville, 
Alabama, now stands, before any town was there. Timber grew 
thick around the great spring, though the camp-meeting was not 
at that, but at another spring a mile below. Calhoun and others 
held a camp-meeting at the spring where the town of Monroe, Over- 
ton County, Tennessee, was afterward built. None of these men 
got much, if any, pay at first. They wore homespun clothing 
made by their mothers or wives, and were at little expense. They 
often swam the rivers, because there were no ferry-boats except on 
the thoroughfares. 



90 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period il 

The ordained missionaries of the presbytery were King, Don- 
nell, Calhonn, McSpeddin, Foster, McL,in, Chapman, Harris, Kirk- 
patrick, Barnett, Bell, and McL,ean, with large additions to the list 
toward the close of this presbyterial period. A course of study 
prescribed by presbytery was regularly kept up by the young men 
on all these tours of evangelism. They recited to their seniors 
as they rode along on their horses. This was the normal school of 
science and divinity for the first Cumberland Presbyterians. While 
it had its disadvantages, it generally made grand thinkers. Testi- 
monies from the ablest alumni of the old colleges are in existence 
showing with what a grasp of original thought these men took up 
an investigation. A college president once sat down with Reuben 
Burrow to investigate a Bible question. They had gone but a little 
way in the investigation before the college man saw that he was in 
the presence of his master. In vigor of original thought, in grasp, 
and depth, and clearness of discernment, he could hold no hand 
with Burrow. Dr. Anderson, of the Presbyterian church, warned 
his friend, Dr. Blackburn, against entering into any controversy 
with Finis Bwing, on the ground that Bwing would prove too hard 
for him. He said Ewing had already given Blackburn a Braddock's 
defeat. [See Life and Times of Ewing, p. 203.] 

What heroism it required to enter the ministry under our first 
presbytery! There were no pastorates, no salaries, no possibility 
of earthly honors. To travel unpaid on horseback across wild 
wastes to the homes of pioneers in the new settlements; to swim 
rivers, and sleep on the bare ground; to go hungry and half clad; 
to belong to a struggling little church whose doctrines and prac- 
tices were diligently misrepresented, as they are even to this day; 
to preach in floorless log-cabins, or gather the rough frontiersmen 
in camps around some spring, and there labor day and night for a 
week that poor lost men might be saved, and that our new territo- 
ries might not all be given over to infidelity; and after all this, to 
die in poverty at last, was the prospect before that generation of 
our preachers. Thank God there were men equal to the occasion! 

Brief biographical sketches of the ordained ministers of the new 
presbytery, up to the time it was divided, are here given: 

Samuel McAdow was born in North Carolina, April 10, 1760, 



Chapter X.J THE NKW CHURCH. 



9* 



and was converted in 1771. He was a graduate of Mechlenburg 
College; was married to Henrietta Wheatley, in 1788; licensed in 
1797, by Orange Presbytery; ordained in 1798 or 1799. He moved 
to Kentucky in 1799; aided in forming the new church in 1810; 
moved to Illinois in 1828; and died March 30, 1844. 

Finis Bwing was born in Virginia, in July, 1773; was married 
January 19, 1793, to Peggy Davidson; was a candidate in 1801, 
receiving licensure in 1802; was ordained in 1803. He assisted in 
the organization of the new church in 18 10, and helped to make 
the Confession of Faith in 18 14; moved to Missouri in 1820; died 
in 1841, 

Samuel King was born in North Carolina, April 19, 1775; was 
married to Ann Dixon in 1795; licensed in 1802, and ordained in 
1804. He aided in forming the new church in 1810; moved to 
Missouri in 1825; died in 1842. 

Ephraim McLean was born June 26, 1768; married Elizabeth 
Walton Byers, of Virginia; was a candidate in 1802; was licensed 
in 1803, and ordained by the new Cumberland Presbytery in 18 10. 
He died January 1, 181 3. 

James Brown Porter was born February 26, 1779, in North Car- 
olina, and was converted in 1801. He became a candidate in 1803; 
was licensed in 1804, and ordained in 18 10. He was twice mar- 
ried. He died in 1854. 

William McGee was born in North Carolina, in 1768. He was 
licensed and ordained in North Carolina before 1796, at which time 
he was sent West as a missionary. He joined the Cumberland 
Presbytery in October, 18 10, and helped to form the Confession in 
1814. He died in 181 7. 

Robert Bell was born December 16, 1770. He married Grizzell 
McCutcheon. He was licensed in 1804; was ordained in 1810, and 
was sent as a missionary to the Indians in 1820. He died October 
9 th, 1853. 

Thomas Calhoun was born in North Carolina, May 31, 1782. 
He became a candidate in 1803, and was married to Mary Johnson 
in 1809. He received licensure in July, 1810, and was ordained in 
181 1. He helped to make our Confession of Faith in 1814. He 
died in 1855. 



92 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period n. 

Hugh Kirkpatrick, the date of whose birth is not known, was 
a licensed preacher at the time the commission met in 1805. He 
was ordained in 18 10. He died in 1864. 

David Foster was born in North Carolina, May 4, 1780; was 
licensed in 1805. He married Ann Beard in 1806; was ordained in 
1810; moved to Illinois in 1827. He died in 1833. 

William Harris was born in 1772, and married Nancy High- 
smith in 1797. He was a catechist in 1804, a candidate in 1810, 
licensed in 181 1, and ordained in 18 12. He published our first 
hymn book in 1824. He died in 1845. 

William Barnettwas born April 24, 1785; was licensed in 1810, 
and ordained in 181 3. He was twice married. He died at a camp- 
meeting in West Tennessee in 1828. 1 

Alexander Chapman was born in Pennsylvania, January 2, 1776. 
He married Ann Dixon Carson in 1805; became a candidate in 
1805; was licensed in 181 1; ordained in 1813. He died in 1834. 

David Wilson Mclyin was born December 24, 1785. He became 
a candidate in 18 10, was licensed in 181 1, and married Nancy 
Johnson Porter in 18 12. He died in his adopted home in Illinois, 
in 1836. 

Robert Donnell was born in North Carolina, in April, 1784. 
(The family records were destroyed by the Indians.) He was a 
candidate in 1806, was licensed in 181 1, and ordained in 1813. He 
helped to form the Confession of Faith in 18 14. He married Ann 
E. Smith in 181 7. * His second wife was Clara W. L,indley, to whom 
he was married in 1832. He died in 1855. 

The licentiates under the care of the first presbytery were Philip 
McDonnold, William Bumpass, Samuel McSpeddin, and Samuel 
Donnell. The candidates were Robert Guthrie, John Barnett, 
John Carnahan, Elisha Price, Green P. Rice, Daniel Buie, Robert 
McCorkle, James Stewart, Ezekiel Cloyd, Francis McConnell, and 
Elijah Cherry. A few others conversed with the presbytery about 
their call to the ministry, and were advised to defer their decision. 
Most of these came into the ministry after the presbytery was 
divided, and after a melancholy period of doubt and struggle. 



1 Some authorities say he was carried home before he died. 



Chapter XL] THE GENERAL SYNOD. 93 



CHAPTER XI. 



FIRST AIMS— NECESSITY FOR A SYNOD— ITS ORGANI- 
ZATION—SKETCHES OF ITS MEMBERS. 

Man is higher than his dwelling-place; 

He looks up and unfolds the wings of his soul. 

— Jean Paul Richter. 

"Thine arm hath led us on, 
A way no more expected 

Than when thy sheep passed through the deep, 
By crystal walls protected." 

IT is indicated clearly all through the records of the first presby- 
tery that a separate denomination was not at first aimed at, but 
only an independent presbytery of the Presbyterian church, with 
reserved hopes that in some unforeseen manner the breach would 
one day be healed. These hopes were not all given up even when 
a synod was formed, as the preamble to the resolution establishing 
a synod clearly indicates ; but the failure of all past efforts at recon- 
ciliation, and the necessities of the great work committed to their 
hands, required them to take one more step. 

The Cumberland Presbytery, at the meeting held at Lebanon 
church, Christian County, Kentucky, November 3, 1812, put on 
record the fact that it had been struggling for a reunion with the 
Presbyterian church, and that it still desired such reunion. [See 
Minutes in the Theological Medium, October, 1878, pp. 494, 495.] 
The preamble to the resolution to form a synod is as follows: 

Whereas, we, the Cumberland Presbytery, have made every reason- 
able effort to be reunited to the general Presbyterian church; and, 
whereas, from the extent of our bounds, the local situation of our 
members, their number, etc., it is inconvenient to do business in but 
one presbytery; and, whereas, the constitution of a synod would be 
desirable, and we trust of good consequences, in various respects, and 
particularly as a tribunal having appellate jurisdiction; therefore, 
resolved, etc. 



94 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period n. 

The Elk and Logan presbyteries were formed. The Elk Pres- 
bytery extended from the month of Dnck River northward to Ten- 
nessee Ridge, thence east to the Cumberland Mountains in Mid- 
dle Tennessee. Its southern boundary was indefinite, but extended 
as far as the white settlements, and followed up the advancing 
wave of these settlements. Its first members were William 
McGee, Samuel King, James B. Porter, Robert Bell, and Robert 
Donnell. Its first meeting was at Mount Carmel, and William 
McGee preached the opening sermon. 

The Logan Presbytery was bounded on the south by the other 
two presbyteries, but extended northward indefinitely. Ohio, Illi- 
nois, and Indiana Territories were in its field, as were also Penn- 
sylvania and New York. Its members were Finis Ewing, William 
Harris, Alexander Chapman, and William Barnett. At the organ- 
ization the sermon was preached by Ewing. 

The Cumberland (Nashville) Presbytery was composed of the 
following members: Thomas Calhoun, David Foster, D. W. McLin, 
Hugh Kirkpatrick, William Bumpass, Samuel McSpeddin, and 
Ezekiel Cloyd. The boundaries of this presbytery were limited 
only by the fields assigned to the Elk and the Logan. The first 
synod was organized on the 5th day of October, 1813, at the Beech 
meeting-house, in Sumner County, Tennessee. There were sixteen 
ordained ministers within its bounds. William McGee preached 
the opening sermon. 

There is a pen and ink sketch of the men who composed this 
synod at its second meeting, when the Confession was adopted. It 
was drawn by E. Curry, who was present at the meeting described: 

The Rev. Samuel King was the moderator, and with modest step 
advanced to the chair, 1 and with a solemnity and dignity of counte- 
nance peculiar to himself, entered upon the duties of his station. Upon 
the right sat Finis Ewing, with a keen eye, ready to scan every thing 
that came before the synod. Near him sat Hugh Kirkpatrick, with a 
heavy brow, prepared to define hard words and sentences. On his 
right sat James B. Porter, with a pleasing countenance, as though he 

was delighted that they were about to smite off the old shackles 

On the left of the moderator sat Robert Donnell, writing resolutions to 



*King was only temporarily in the chair; he was not moderator that session.— 
B. W. M. 



Chapter XL] THE GENERAL SYNOD. 95 

offer to synod. Behind him was David Foster, with a critic's eye to 
detect any error. In this group sat my favorite, Thomas Calhoun, who 
once spoke terror to my heart and caused me to cry aloud for mercy. 
Just in front sat Alexander Chapman, with a serene look and attentive 
ear, that he might be prepared to give a judicious vote. A little back 
lay Samuel Donnell, brother of Robert (in an advanced stage of con- 
sumption), who seemed to be a sort of concordance to whom all 
applied for scriptural proofs. Farther back in the house William 
McGee was seen, tossing to and fro with deep thoughts and heavy 
groans, soon to be vented in a powerful speech. A little in front sat 
William Bumpass, a man of ready wit and good judgment, who always 
had language to tell what he knew. In a corner of the aisle stood 
William Barnett, about to deliver one of his thundering speeches, 
which made the walls of the church reverberate with his loud, shrill 
voice. Several more of the fathers of the church took part in the 
deliberations of that synod. 

We regret that Mr. Curry did not continue his picture. At 
that meeting were William Harris, D. W. McLin, Robert Bell, 
Samuel McSpeddin, Ezekiel Cloyd, and Philip McDonnold. These 
men were ' ' the fathers ' ' of the Cumberland Presbyterian church. 

I often, in my boyhood, saw McSpeddin. He used to preach 
at my father's house on his circuit in the mountains. " Uncle 
Sam," everybody called him. He was a plain, earnest, honest, 
good man, and a great favorite with the mountain people. His 
favorite theme was experimental religion. I once heard Dr. Cos- 
sitt beg him to leave his thoughts on that subject in writing for 
posterity. " Uncle Sam" lived to great age and retained his 
memory fresh to the last. It was customary with all our writers on 
biography or history to go to McSpeddin for facts. Even his dates 
were always found to be reliable. Several times they were ques- 
tioned, but investigation proved them to be right. His youngest 
son, Judge McSpeddin, of Center, Alabama, still lives. 

I also knew William Harris. He presided in the examination 
when I was received as a candidate for the ministry. Dr. Beard 
has given us a beautiful biographical sketch of Harris; the most 
interesting, I think, of all his biographical sketches. Harris has 
sons and grandsons still living. One of his grandsons was a little 
child, two and a half years old, when Father Harris died. The 
dying man had this child brought to his bed, and laying his hands 



96 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period 11. 

upon his head poured forth a prayer of great earnestness for God's 
blessings on the life of the boy. That grandson is now the senior 
editor of the Cumberland Presbyterian. 

Philip McDonnold died before my day, but as his father, Red- 
mond McDonnold, was my father's uncle; and as his mother and 
younger brother, Barnett, long survived him, I used to hear his 
wonderful career discussed very often. The family lived in what 
was then called Stoglan's Valley, on the borders of what was 
then Wayne County, Kentucky. I made many a visit to their 
home, and the name of Philip was spoken with profoundest ven- 
eration. By some strange freak the orthography of his name is 
perverted into McDaniel, even in the published minutes of his 
own presbytery. The McDaniels were another family and no kin 
to the McDonnolds, but a noble preacher rose up among them at a 
later day. I know that Dr. Beard tried to collect material for a 
biography of Philip McDonnold, but as he never published the 
biography, it may be that he failed to secure the necessary facts. 

McDonnold was an extemporaneous orator and left no writ- 
ings at all. The old people said that when he came from the 
woods (which was the closet of prayer in those days) and went into 
the pulpit, he was often as white as a sheet. When he began his 
sermon, pouring down torrents of oratory and of fire upon them, 
there was but one way to resist, and that was to run as quick as 
possible out of hearing. Wonderful things are related about the 
effects of his oratory. People said he often made them feel as if 
the day of judgment had already come. Many of our old people, 
David Lowry among the number, insisted that the spiritual power 
of Philip McDonnold' s oratory was never equaled on earth. He 
married a daughter of General Robert Ewing, who was Finis 
Ewing's oldest brother, and died in 1815, at the close of his 
twenty -first year. His only son, Philip Monroe McDonnold, 
entered the ministry, receiving licensure. He married, and then, 
like his father, died, leaving only one child. After Philip McDon- 
nold' s tongue had been dust for more than fifty years old men still 
wept when some of his thrilling appeals to sinners were mentioned 
in their presence. 

Dr. Beard's Biographical Sketches give pen-pictures of most 





Rev. Ihomas Calhoun 



£^ <*fc 







Rev Robert Donnell 



Rev. R.D. Morrow 



Chapter XI.] THE GENERAL SYNOD. 97 

of the fathers of our church. There is need of a few additions. 
In the sketch given by Mr. Curry of William McGee there is men- 
tion made of his groaning and restlessness. McGee had a long, 
hard struggle about doctrine. He rejected the stern features of 
the Westminster Confession, but he could not frame another sys- 
tem of theology which left out these objectionable teachings, and 
at the same time avoided the opposite extreme. He declined to 
aid in organizing the independent presbytery. He refrained a long 
time from preaching. Alone in the woods he labored and prayed 
over the system which was to take the place of the one he had 
rejected. A little light dawned on him and he went then and 
joined the independent presbytery. Still it was an unsettled ques- 
tion what new creed would be adopted under the new conditions. 
This was the pending question when McGee showed the anxiety 
described by Mr. Curry. He helped to make the new creed and 
voted for it. It was unanimously adopted. At last McGee* s 
troubled heart had rest. 
7 



98 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period 11. 



CHAPTER XII. 



THE CONFESSION OF FAITH— SYNOPSIS OF DOC- 
TRINES—FULLER CONFESSION — A MEDIUM SYS- 
TEM—DIAGRAM. 

Not to know at large of things remote 
From use, obscure, and subtile; but to know- 
That which before us lies in daily life, 
Is the prime wisdom. What is more is fume, 
Emptiness, or fond impertinence; 
And renders us, in things that most concern, 
Unpracticed, unprepared, and still to seek. 

— Milton. 

My banner — from my Master was it to me intrusted — 

Before his throne must I lay it down at last. 

I dare display it, because I have borne it faithfully. 

—Schiller. 

THE Cumberland Presbytery, before the organization of the 
synod, had felt the need of a more definite creed. Its candi- 
dates for the ministry all adopted the Westminster Confession, 
with exceptions about fatality. This was too vague. At the very 
last meeting of the presbytery before the organization of the 
synod, Finis Ewing and Robert Donnell were appointed a commit- 
tee to prepare a synopsis of doctrines. Their synopsis was reported 
to the synod and unanimously adopted. The synod ordered this 
outline statement of its doctrines to be published. It appeared 
soon after in Buck's Theological Dictionary. It was as follows: 

1. That Adam was made upright, pure, and free; that he was 
necessarily under the moral law, which binds all intelligences; and 
having transgressed it he was, consequently, with all his posterity, 
exposed to eternal punishment and misery. 

2. That Christ, the second Adam, represented just as many as the 
first; consequently made an atonement for all, "which will be testified 
in due time;" but that the benefit of that atonement will be received 
only by the true believer. 



Chapter XII.] THE CONFESSION OF FAITH. 99 

3. That all Adam's family are totally depraved, conceived in sin, 
going astray from the womb, and all children of wrath; therefore must 
be born again, justified, and sanctified, or they never can enter into 
the kingdom of God. 

4. That justification is by faith alone as the instrument; by the 
merits of Christ's active and passive obedience, as the meritorious 
cause; and by the operation of God's Spirit as the efficient or active 
cause. 

5. That as the sinner is justified on the account of Christ's right- 
eousness being imputed to him, on the same account he will be enabled 
to go on from one degree of grace to another, in a progressive life of 
sanctification, until he is fit to be gathered to the garner of God, who 
will certainly take to glory every man who is really justified; that is, 
he, Christ, has become wisdom (light to convince), righteousness (to 
justify), sanctification (to cleanse), and redemption (to glorify) to 
every truly regenerated soul. 

The sixth item asserts the traditional doctrine of the Trinity. 
Then the synopsis states its dissent from the Westminster Confes- 
sion as follows: 

1. That there are no eternal reprobates. 2. That Christ died not 
for a part only, but for all mankind. 3. That all infants dying in 
infancy are saved through Christ and the sanctification of the Spirit. 
4. That the operations of the Holy Spirit are co-extensive with the 
atonement; that is, on the whole world, in such a manner as to leave 
all without excuse. 

After stating this dissent, our fathers then add: 

As to the doctrines of election and reprobation, they think (with 
many eminent and modest divines who have written on the subject) 
they are mysterious. They are not well pleased with the application 
that rigid Calvinists, or Arminians, make of them. They think the 
truth of that, as well as many other points in divinity, lies between the 
opposite extremes. They are confident, however, that those doctrines 
should not, on the one hand, be so construed as to make any thing the 
creature has done, or can do, at all meritorious in his salvation; or to 
lay any ground to say, "Well done, I;" or to take the least degree of 
the honor of our justification and perseverance from God's unmerited 
grace and Christ's pure righteousness. On the other hand, they are 
equally confident that those doctrines should not be so construed as to 
make God the author of sin, directly or indirectly, .... or to contra- 
dict the sincerity of God's expostulation with sinners, and make his 



ioo Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period n. 

oath to have no meaning, when he swears he has no pleasure in their 
death; or to resolve the whole character of the Deity into his sover- 
eignty without a due regard to all his other adorable attributes. 1 

On this platform of doctrine they (the fathers of our church) 
dared spread their banner to the breeze; and we, their sons, 
hope, through God's grace, to keep it flying till the grand mission 
of the everlasting gospel is accomplished. This platform came 
not from human schools. It owes no debt to ancient or modern 
philosophy. In the great revival men who studied their English 
Bibles while laboring for the salvation of souls, rejected the medi- 
eval fatalism in that system to which their church adhered, and, 
without being scholastic enough to attempt a theodicy, they con- 
fined their creed to the plain middle of the track of revealed truth. 

A cold scholastic logic applied to theology always terminates in 
one or the other of two extremes. Grace and freedom are Jacob 
and Esau struggling in the womb together. IyOgic destroys one 
or the other and ends the struggle. Practical pulpit theology lets 
both live, and lets the struggle go on, nor makes any effort at 
reconciling things which, though both clearly revealed, are, in 
appearance, irreconcilable. We have far more confidence in a sys- 
tem of theology growing out of a revival, than in a system made, 
by scholastics writing in the midst of their books and aiming at 
logical consistency. 

The synod appointed a committee, consisting of William 
McGee, Finis Ewing, Thomas Calhoun, and Robert Donnell, to 
prepare a fuller creed. This committee worked first in two sec- 
tions. They simply read over the Westminster Confession, item 
by item, changing such expressions as did not suit them. Then 
the two sections met and all went through the same process. By 
order of the synod, all the churches were observing a day of fast- 
ing and prayer for divine guidance to be given to the committee. 
Thomas Calhoun gave the writer a history of their meetings. 
They prayed much and had a clear assurance that divine direction 
had been granted. 

I have Robert Donnell' s memoranda of the action of the synod 

Smith, p. 646, et sea 



Chapter XII.] 



The Confession of Faith. 



ioi 



of 1 814 on the proposed creed. Though there were some amend- 
ments made by the synod, yet it is recorded by Donnell that the 
vote on every item was unanimous. What the proposed creed was 
before the synod's amendments we have no means now of know- 
ing. Donnell's memoranda state the action in words like these: 
4 ' Motion to strike out second clause carried unanimously. ' ' 

The following exhibit of the principal changes made in the 
Westminster Confession, which I cut from an article published by 
Dr. C. H. Bell, will place the doctrinal status of our church before 
the reader: 



Confession of Faith of the 
Presbyterian Church 
(O. s.). 

CHAPTER III. 

Of God's Eternal Decrees. 
God from all eternity did by the 
most wise and holy counsel of his 
own will, freely and unchangeably 
ordain whatsoever comes to pass; 
yet so as thereby neither is God 
the author of sin, nor is violence 
offered to the will of the creatures, 
nor is liberty or contingency of 
second causes taken away, but 
rather established. 



3. By the decree of God for the 
manifestation of his glory some 
men and angels are predestinated 
unto everlasting life, and others 
foreordained to everlasting death. 

4. These angels and men thus 
predestinated and foreordained are 
particularly and unchangeably de- 
signed; and their number is so 
certain and definite that it can not 
be either increased or diminished. 



Confession of Faith of the 
Cumberland Presbyterian 
Church. (1814.) 

chapter III. 
Of God's Eternal Decrees. 

God did by the most wise and 
holy counsel of his own will, de- 
termine to bring to pass what 
should be for his own glory. 

2. God has not decreed any 
thing respecting his creature, man, 
contrary to his revealed will or 
written word; which declares his 
sovereignty over all his creatures, 
the ample provision he has made 
for their salvation; his determina- 
tion to punish the finally impeni- 
tent with everlasting destruction, 
and to save the true believer with 
an everlasting salvation. 

Section 3 omitted in Cumber- 
land Presbyterian Confession. 



Omitted. 



102 



Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period n. 



6. As God hath appointed the 
elect unto glory, so hath he, by the 
eternal and most free purpose of 
his will, foreordained all the means 
thereunto. Wherefore they who 
are elected being fallen in Adam 
are redeemed by Christ, are effect- 
ually called unto faith in Christ by 
his spirit working in due season; 
and justified, adopted, sanctified, 
and kept by his power through 
faith unto salvation. Neither are 
any other redeemed by Christ ef- 
fectually called, justified, adopted, 
sanctified, and saved, but the elect 
only. 

7. The rest of mankind God was 
pleased, according to the unsearch- 
able counsel of his own will, 
whereby he extendeth or with- 
holdeth mercy as he pleaseth, for 
the glory of his sovereign power 
over his creatures, to pass by, and 
to ordain them to dishonor and 
wrath for their sin, to the praise of 
his glorious justice. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Christ the Mediator. 

8. To all those for whom Christ 
hath purchased redemption, he 
doth certainly and effectually ap- 
ply and communicate the same, 
making intercession for them, and 
revealing unto them, in and by the 
word, the mysteries of salvation; 
effectually persuading them by his 
spirit to believe and obey. . . . 

chapter x. 
Effectual Calling. 
All those whom God hath pre- 
destinated unto life, and those only, 
he is pleased in his appointed 



Omitted. 



Omitted, 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Christ the Mediator. 
8. Jesus Christ, by the grace of 
God, has tasted death for every 
man, and now makes intercession 
for transgressors; by virtue of 
which, the Holy Spirit is given to 
convince of sin, and enable the 
creature to believe and obey. . . . 



CHAPTER X. 

Effectual Calling. 
All those whom God calls, and 
who obey the call, and those only, 
he is pleased by his word and 






Chapter XII.] 



The Confession of Faith. 



io 3 



and accepted time effectually to 
call, by his word and Spirit, out of 
that state of sin and death in which 
they are by nature, to grace and 
salvation by Jesus Christ. . . . 

3. Elect infants dying in infancy 
are regenerated and saved by 
Christ, through the Spirit, who 
worketh when, and where, and 
how he pleaseth. So also are all 
other elect persons who are in- 
capable of being outwardly called 
by the ministry of the word. 

4. Others, not elected, although 
they may be called by the ministry 
of the word, and may have some 
common operations of the Spirit, 
yet they never truly come to Christ, 
and therefore can not be saved. . . . 



Spirit to bring out of that state of 
sin and death in which they are by 
nature, to grace and salvation by 
Jesus Christ. . . . 

3. All infants dying in infancy 
are regenerated and saved by 
Christ through the Spirit, who 
worketh when, and where, and 
how he pleaseth; so, also, are others 
who have never had the exercise 
of reason, and who are incapable 
of being outwardly called by the 
ministry of the word. 

Omitted. 



CHAPTER XVII. 



CHAPTER XVII. 



Of the Perseverance of the Saints. 

They whom God hath accepted 
in his Beloved, effectually called 
and sanctified by his Spirit, can 
neither totally nor finally fall away 
from the state of grace; but shall 
certainly persevere therein to the 
end, and be eternally saved. 

2. This perseverance of the 
saints depends, not upon their 
own free will, but upon the im- 
mutability of the decree of elec- 
tion, flowing from the free and 
unchangeable love of God the 
Father; upon the efficacy of the 
merit and intercession of Jesus 
Christ; the abiding of the Spirit 
and of the seed of God within 
them; and the nature of the cov- 
enant of grace; from all which 
ariseth also the certainty and in- 
fallibility thereof. 



Of the Perseverance of the Saints. 

They whom God hath justified 
and sanctified he will also glorify; 
consequently the truly regenerated 
soul will never totally nor finally 
fall away from the state of grace, 
but shall certainly persevere there- 
in to the end, and be eternally saved. 

2. This perseverance depends on 
the unchangeable love and power 
of God; the merits, advocacy, and 
intercession of Jesus Christ; the 
abiding of the Spirit and seed of 
God within them; and the nature 
of the covenant of grace; from all 
which ariseth also the certainty 
and infallibility thereof. 



io4 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period ii. 

The great majority of the chapters in the Westminster Confes- 
sion were placed in the new creed without any change at all, the 
changes here indicated being the only vital ones made. The Cat- 
echism was also changed in the matter of decrees to correspond 
with the views set forth in the new Confession. The chapters on 
faith, repentance, depravity, and imputation, in the new book, are 
the same substantially as in the old. The new Confession clearly 
enunciates the truth that u God so loved the world that he gave 
his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should 
not perish, but have everlasting life;" and that "the manifestation 
of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. " Through 
Christ's atoning grace, and by the Spirit's aid, man can be saved. 
What need have we of more metaphysics in our creed? 

Besides these principal changes, the Confession of Faith of 1814 
made some additions to the deliverances of the Westminster stand- 
ards on the subject of sanctification, and about the gift or baptism 
of the Holy Spirit. On the former, our fathers, after giving all 
the thirteenth chapter of the old book, just as it stands, added the 
following words: u Although the remains of depravity may con- 
tinue to affect the true believer in this life, yet it is his duty and 
privilege, through grace, to maintain a conscience void ot offense 
toward God and toward men." 

Finis Ewing tells us, in substance, that the compilers ot our 
Confession of Faith aimed at medium ground on the sanctification 
question. He was one of those compilers. They did not believe 
that sanctification is all finished until the soul leaves the body; 
neither did they believe that a life of sin is compatible with that 
Christianity which has received the baptism of the Holy Ghost. 
They believed that a Christian could and should maintain a con- 
science void of offense, and so live free from condemnation. 

While they retained as true the phrases about the remains of 
depravity continuing to affect the believer as long as he remains in 
the body, yet they feared these expressions might be abused so as 
to "make provisions for the flesh," and they sought to guard 
against this abuse by two very strong declarations. [Chap. xiii. , 
sec. 4, and chap, xvii., sec. 3.] 

It has been shown in a previous chapter that our fathers believed 



Chapter XII.] THE CONFESSION OF FAITH. 105 

in an abiding baptism of the Holy Ghost as a distinct blessing after 
conversion. They changed the wording of the seventeenth chapter 
so as to give emphasis to this belief. 

The Westminster Confession reads (chap. xvii. , sec. 3) : 

Nevertheless, they [Christians] may, through the temptations of 
Satan and of the world, the prevalency of corruption remaining in 
them, and the neglect of the means of their preservation, fall into 
grievous sins, and for a time continue therein: whereby they incur 
God's displeasure, and grieve his Holy Spirit; come to be deprived 
of some measure of their graces and comforts; have their hearts hard- 
ened, and their consciences wounded; hurt and scandalize others, and 
bring temporal judgments upon themselves. 

The book adopted by our fathers reads (chap, xvii., sec. 3): 

Although there are examples in the Old Testament of good men 
having egregiously sinned, and some of them continuing for a time 
therein, yet now, since life and immortality are brought clearer to light 
in the gospel, and especially since the effusion of the Holy Ghost on the 
day of Pentecost, we may not expect the true Christian to fall into such 
gross sins. Nevertheless, they may, through the temptations of Satan, 
the world and the flesh, the neglect of the means of grace, fall into 
sin, and incur God's displeasure, and grieve his Holy Spirit; come to be 
deprived of some measure of their graces and comforts, and have their 
consciences wounded; but the real Christian can never rest satisfied 
therein. 

If the quotations from McAdow's sermons, in the chapter on the 
Paraclete, are compared with this change in the Confession, the 
reasons for the change will be understood. Of all the doctrines 
held by our fathers, the one about this abiding baptism of the Holy 
Ghost was most esteemed by them. Gradually it was allowed to 
be crowded into the background, after our fathers went to their 
rest. In nearly all our early judicatures of this period, strong res- 
olutions are placed on record about the necessity of a godly life. 
It is constantly affirmed by all our early writers that all Christians 
should live in abiding communion with God. A state of full assur- 
ance was insisted on in every protracted meeting which these men 
held. 

But enough of this digression. The Confession, studied as a 
whole, interpreting the scraps and phrases by the general tenor of 



106 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period ii. 

the book, and not interpreting the whole tenor of the book by 
these phrases, teaches "the medium system " — a medium between 
the old time Calvinism and Arminianism. 

It has been so often denied that there can be any medium 
ground between Calvinism and Arminianism, that a few Words on 
that subject seem necessary. The assertion of impossibility is a 
father's hat on a boy's head. Originally it was, " There is no 
medium ground between fatality and freedom.' ' If there can not 
be a free volition with no antecedent cause outside of the fact that 
there was a free actor, then fatality follows inevitably. The impos- 
sibility, if it exists, applies to God's volitions as well as man's. 
The claim to medium ground was not to a medium between fatality 
and freedom, but a medium between the Calvinism of that day and 
Arminianism. 

An attempt is here made to exhibit the representative creeds 
of Christendom, graded according to the amount of Calvinism or 
Arminianism which they contain. You begin to read the diagram 
in the middle. Bach step upward is supposed to contain one shade 
more of Calvinism, till it passes Calvinism into atheistic fatality. 
Each step downward is supposed to be a step further away from 
Calvinism. Up and down refer only to the page, and not to any 
superiority in the creeds. From this diagram, if it be a true 
exhibit, the justness of the claim to a medium position, which 
the Cumberland Presbyterians set up, will be clearly seen. The 
place assigned some of the creeds was determined by averaging, 
some of their doctrines belonging to a higher grade and some to a 
lower than the one assigned. The fact that the New School Pres- 
byterians and the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland both 
adopt the Westminster standards modifies their grading. Private 
and individual systems give other shades not here noticed. The 
pulpit theology of the New School Presbyterians was often far 
more Arminian than the system held by Cumberland Presbyteri- 
ans; so, too, is the theology of many a modern Congregationalism 
A large part of the Baptist churches hold about the same amount 
of Calvinism that the Cumberland Presbyterians do. While many 
reference books have been examined, Schaflf and Hagenbach have 
been relied on more than others. 



Chapter XII.] THE CONFESSION OF FAITH. IO7 

DIAGRAM OF REPRESENTATIVE CREEDS. 

9. Atheistic fatality. 
8. Theistic fatality. God under fate. 
7. Two-seed Baptists. Antinomians. 
6. Supralapsarian Calvinists. Dort. 

5. Infralapsarian Calvinists. American Old School Presbyte- 
rians. 
4. New School Presbyterians. 
3. The Savoy Declaration, 1658. 
2. The United Presbyterians. Declaration of 1879. 
1. The Baxterians. 
English Congregationalists, 1833, 
Evangelical Free Church of Geneva, 
Cumberland Presbyterians, 
Reformed Episcopal church, 
Free Italian church, 

1. L/Utherans. 

2. Freewill Baptists. 

3. Evangelical Union of Scotland. 

4. Methodists. 

5. Quakers, "orthodox/' not "Hicksite." 

6. Campbellites. 

7. Pelagians. 

8. Socinians. 

9. Atheistic freedom. No divine influence. 

The range of our easy and hearty fellowship in work for the 
Master's kingdom takes in all the grades from five above to five 
below, and sometimes stretches over the sixth above and below. 
The sixth below has two wholly different elements among its 
membership, one class believing in experimental religion, the 
presence and power of the Holy Ghost, and in revivals. With 
them our people can co-operate in Christian work. The other 
class we can not work with, and might do them injustice if we 
tried to give their views. There are individual exceptions also in 
the grades which we fellowship. Men of any grade who oppose 
revivals can not work well with us, nor we with them. 



108 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period n. 

As to communing at the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, we 
put no barrier in the way, but refer the question to men's own 
consciences. I have seen Unitarians communing with our people. 
It is not our custom to require any test — church membership, bap- 
tism, or any thing of the sort. If a man believes that he is a Chris- 
tian and his own conscience is clear in coming to the Lord's table, 
we invite him to come. This has always been our custom, and is 
the obvious meaning of our standards. There have been a few 
dissenting voices to this interpretation of the standards. These 
insist on church membership, in some orthodox church, as essen- 
tial. Baptism is, according to them, prerequisite to communion. 

One thing can be clearly proved as a historical fact, and that is 
that slowly but surely the doctrinal views of the Presbyterian 
church, so far as the pulpit can be taken as their exponent, have 
been drawing nearer and nearer, ever since 1814, to this medium 
platform. 



Chapter XIII.] THE THREE PRESBYTERIES. 



09 



CHAPTER XIII 



THE THREE PRESBYTERIES — OLD CUSTOMS NOW 

DROPPED. 

Thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee. — Deut. viii. 2. 

FROM the organization of the synod, in 181 3, until the organ- 
ization of McGee Presbytery, in 1819, there were just three 
presbyteries. These had the whole world for their field. It may be 
interesting to mention several customs which prevailed among them 
then, and which have long since passed away. The old custom 
among all Presbyterians of requiring tokens from communicants 
was kept up a little while by our people, but, without any ecclesi- 
astical repudiation, was gradually dropped. James B. Porter made 
the first vigorous denunciation of the system. He had seen 
Colonel Joe Brown driven by it out of the Presbyterian church, 
and he ever afterward refused to use tokens. The token was a 
little piece of metal like a trunk check, given by the session to a 
church member on communion day. It was his pass to the Lord's 
table when the sacrament was administered. The communicants 
took their seats at a long table. They always used real tables in 
those days. Then one man, appointed for the purpose, went round 
the table to see that all seated there had tokens. If any one there 
seated had no token he was pointed out to those who distributed 
the bread and wine, and they skipped him in their distribution. 
For many years the mother church withheld tokens from those of 
its members who had communed with u the Cumberlands, " as they 
insisted on calling the members of the new church. 

Colonel Joe Brown gave me, with his own lips, the history of 
his case. He had communed with the Cumberland Presbyterians, 
and his pastor ordered the session to refuse him a token. His sym- 
pathies were already with the new church both on account of its 
revivals and its doctrines. When the token was withheld, by 



no Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period n. 

Gideon Blackburn's order, Colonel Brown then and there rose in 
the great congregation and told them that the Cumberland Presby- 
terians were God's people; that the attempt to bring them under 
the odium theologicum would recoil on its authors; and that he, for 
one, intended to cast his lot in with the church under whose minis- 
try his children had been led to Jesus. While Mrs. Frances B. 
Fogg's little biography of this hero of Nickajack is interesting, it 
fails utterly to give the thrilling story of his life after his release 
from Indian captivity. I myself once took down from Colonel 
Brown's own lips full memoranda of his whole life, but the memo- 
randa were destroyed with most of my library during the war. It 
is hoped that some of Colonel Brown's family will yet preserve to 
the church and the world a full account of his wonderful career. 

What was called ' ' fencing ' ' the table in the days of our fathers 
included this business of the tokens, and also the code of rules by 
which the token was either given or withheld. The preacher who 
publicly announced these rules, and presided in their application, 
was said to "fence the table." U A fence for communion," u a 
good fence for the Lord's table," was often published in church 
papers — that is, a code of rules which ought to be applied in dis- 
tributing tokens. I have heard old people regret the laxness of 
discipline which took down the fence from the Lord's table. 
Whether this removal was censurable or praiseworthy, our own 
church was a prominent actor in its accomplishment. 

All three of the presbyteries had a custom which lingered a 
dozen years, and whose origin is hard to trace. A presbytery was 
composed of preachers, elders, and representatives. As in synod, 
so also in presbytery, every preacher was expected to have his own 
elder. Then the churches also were expected to send representa- 
tives to presbytery, but as the distance was in some cases five hun- 
dred miles, it was the custom of the remote churches to club 
together and send one representative for several congregations. 
There were instances where one man represented six congregations, 
so that there was no superabundance of elders even when both 
classes, the preachers' elders and the churches' , were counted. In 
the synod the churches had no representatives. The preachers and 
their elders made the synod; but the preachers' elders were ap- 



Chapter XIII.] THE THREE PRESBYTERIES. Ill 

pointed by the church, sessions in obedience to a requisition made 
annually by the presbytery. For example: the Elk Presbytery, at 
its spring session, would designate what congregation should send 
an elder with Robert Donnell, and the session of that church was 
held responsible for the presence of said elder in the synod. The 
utmost rigor was used at first to enforce this arrangement. The 
elder appointed and failing to go, unless for good reasons, was to 
have charges preferred against him. Such was the rule in all the 
presbyteries. 

All three of the presbyteries had vast fields to cultivate, and 
those fields were continually expanding. The Nashville Presby- 
tery, a few years after it began its separate presbyterial existence, 
found the whole western end of Tennessee opened by the purchase 
of the country from the Indians. But this expansion of that pres- 
bytery was a little thing compared with the vast fields thrown open 
on the frontiers of Logan and Elk presbyteries. In the case of the 
latter, soon after its organization, South Alabama was opened to 
American settlers, then Arkansas, then North-western Alabama, 
then Missouri. At one session of this presbytery petitions for 
preachers were received from five hundred pioneers in the new 
settlements of Alabama alone, and also from vast numbers in Ar- 
kansas and Missouri. Both Logan and Elk presbyteries tried to 
evangelize Missouri. In the wide bounds of Logan Presbytery 
Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio were opened to white settlements, and 
the earnest petitions of emigrants begging for the gospel were part 
of the stirring business coming up at every session. 

In all three of the presbyteries fast-days were repeatedly ap- 
pointed, and all the churches were urged to pray for more laborers 
to be sent into the harvest After these fast-days the presbyteries 
invariably received large accessions to their number of candidates. 
Yet the growth of the new settlements and the demands for the 
gospel kept far ahead of this increase in the supply of ministers. 
It was folly to talk about settling down into pastorates under these 
circumstances. Men were called pastors, and they will be so desig- 
nated in these pages. The name existed, but the reality had no 
place in all the church till near the close of the second period in 
this history. Thomas Calhoun is called pastor in the next chapter, 



ii2 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period n. 

but lie made frequent tours of evangelism which required six 
months each. He attended camp-meetings for two or three months 
every year, and he cultivated a large farm. 

The plan which all the presbyteries fell upon was threefold. 
All the vast fields under their care were districted, and itinerants 
sent to each district. These itinerants established circuits of 
preaching places, and made appointments for preaching every day 
in the week. This was generally missionary work, outside of all 
organized congregations. If the missionary could collect enough 
members to organize a church, he took their names, pledging them 
to form a church as soon as an ordained preacher could be had to 
organize them. The missionary was not usually an ordained min- 
ister. This was the first branch of the system. 

The second branch pertained to organized congregations. In 
these the presbytery appointed sacramental meetings semi-annu- 
ally, and designated the preachers who were to officiate. The fall 
meetings were camp-meetings, as well as sacramental, and every 
ordained preacher, no matter what his pastoral relations might be, 
was required to attend these camp-meetings during the fall months, 
and was also required to perform his part of that other work on the 
circuits which unordained men could not do. The presbytery, at 
every session, designated what portion of these duties fell to the lot 
of each ordained minister, and each was held to rigid account for 
his fidelity in the work assigned him. 

The third branch of the system consisted of such features of 
regular pastorates as could be made consistent with the two preced- 
ing branches. In the orders of these presbyteries I find it no 
uncommon thing for a so-called pastor of this period to be required, 
in the course of a year, to attend as many as a dozen sacramental 
meetings, distant from fifty to three hundred miles from his home; 
and when called on to report at the next meeting of the presbytery, 
it was a rare thing for any one to report a failure. When failure 
was reported, the reasons were investigated. 

The chief question at every meeting of these presbyteries was 
about the supply of itinerants and their support. These itinerants 
were always called missionaries by the Logan Presbytery, but they 
were frequently called circuit riders in the other presbyteries. 



Chapter XIII.] ThE THREE PRESBYTERIES. 113 

Nashville Presbytery consumed one whole session in 18 15 in 
discussing plans for the support of itinerants. The Elk Presby- 
tery came with shorter steps to decided measures. It required 
every member of the church to pay one dollar to the itinerant fund. 
This action was taken in 181 6, and for three years produced good 
results. Afterward we find R. D. King and others traveling under 
order of the presbytery six months on the frontier, without receiv- 
ing a cent of pay. Nashville Presbytery tried several schemes. 
The best one, perhaps, was a central board, with auxiliary societies 
throughout the presbytery; but in two years' time this plan lost its 
vitality, aud again the wail of ' ' no circuit riders ' ' made the meet- 
ings of presbytery a Bochim. This whole system of machinery 
broke down first in the Nashville Presbytery. It failed in all the 
presbyteries before any other system was introduced. 

The first crash of the falling fabric came at the fall meeting of 
the Nashville Presbytery, in 1816. No itinerants could be secured, 
whereupon the presbytery apportioned its field and its churches 
among its ministers, requiring each one to supply the congrega- 
tions assigned him as often as the circumstance% permitted. The 
fact that no itinerants could be secured was regarded by the presby- 
tery with alarm. A fast-day was ordered in all the congregations, 
and, after two years of mourning, the system had another brief 
resuscitation, only to break down more hopelessly than ever. In 
the new presbyteries organized from time to time, the original 
scheme was invariably employed. It was a scheme for planting 
churches, not for training them after they were planted. 

This system of itinerant missionaries followed the system of 
circuit riding among the Methodists in some particulars, but dif- 
fered from it in many others. In theory it was voluntary, but 
sometimes the pressure on a young man to induce him to take the 
circuit was very great. With shame be it recorded that many a 
dear boy has left his half-finished course of studies under this pres- 
sure, and gone out "to ride the circuit." Many such, when old 
men, left in writings, now in my possession, their bitter protests 
against a policy which robbed them of their education and crippled 
their life-work. Popular usage assigned to these itinerant mission- 
aries the name which the Methodists used, but Logan Presbytery 
8 



ii4 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period n. 

refused to accept the name, and never used it in official records. A 
part of the church accepted the name with cheerfulness, since it 
was a true designation of the thing to which it was applied, and 
since, moreover, it came to us all perfumed with grateful odors 
from the fields of heroic toil for Jesus by Methodist itinerants. 

The name Cumberland Presbyterian originated in a somewhat 
similar manner. The whole of Middle Tennessee, so far as it was 
settled, and some of Kentucky, was, in an early day, called Cum- 
berland — not at first * ' the Cumberland country, ' ' but just Cumber- 
land. The settlement in the eastern end of Tennessee was called 
Watauga. These were germs for two new States, and not till 
long after were they the eastern and middle portions of one State. 
Cumberland included all of McGready's field. Here the great 
revival, which was so bitterly opposed by some, began. Before 
the Cumberland Presbytery ever existed, the two parties of Ken- 
tucky Synod were designated by names which the people saw fit to 
apply. One was * ' the Cumberland party, ' ' which was also called 
the levival party. When Transylvania Presbytery was divided, 
and all that country which was called Cumberland assigned to a 
new presbytery called Cumberland Presbytery, the epithet ' ' Cum- 
berland Presbyterian" was already in popular use as designating 
all that part of the Presbyterian church which favored the revival. 
All this was years before the organization of our church. When 
the church was organized in 1810, it adopted no denominational 
name. There was no intention then of starting a new church. It 
was an independent presbytery of Presbyterians, which still hoped 
for restoration to its old status in the mother church. The people 
called its adherents Cumberland Presbyterians. It was not till 
181 3 that the new church indirectly adopted the name which the 
people had already given. Associated with all that was most 
sacred while the new doctrines were costing men their ecclesias- 
tical lives, and endeared on that account to such an extent that no 
subsequent effort to shake it off could be tolerated by those who 
knew and held sacred the traditions of our origin, the name 
remains to this day what the people and God's providence made it. 
It has been often mocked at, but, by God's grace, the church will 
make it as dear one day to all who love true work for Jesus, as it 



Chapter XIII.] THE THREE PRESBYTERIES. 115 

is now to those whose ears still ring, when it is mentioned, with 
the holy songs of the great revival and the fearless sermons of 
those who first proclaimed a general atonement in Presbyterian 
pulpits. 

Another custom originating in the Cumberland Presbytery, and 
kept up by its three successors for many years, was that of having 
a presbyterial library whose books were exchanged at every meet- 
ing of the presbytery. Each minister paid five dollars into the 
library fund, and also solicited contributions from the wealthy for 
the purchase of books, so that the library grew in a few years to a 
considerable collection. A list of the books allowed each preacher 
form part of the minutes of every presbyterial meeting. The 
itinerant system failed first in the Nashville Presbytery; so did the 
custom of having a presbyterial library. In 18 19 that presbytery 
sold out its books. Cities, dense populations, and schools super- 
seded the itinerant library, as they did all the system with which it 
stood connected. 

Another custom was universal all through this period. At all 
the camp-meetings there was at least one sermon preached on a call 
to the ministry. The pressure on the presbyteries for more preach- 
ers was perhaps greater than was ever before brought to bear on any 
church judicatures since the days of the apostles. Several causes 
co-operated to produce this pressure. The first was the constant 
opening up of new territories to immigrants; for the period when 
these presbyteries were the only ones in the church is precisely the 
period when there was the grandest expansion of our national ter- 
ritory. The second cause was the emigration of Cumberland Pres- 
byterians from Kentucky and Tennessee to these new fields. I^et 
the population of Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Alabama, 
and Mississippi be examined to-day, and a very large portion of the 
people will be found to be descendants of Kentuckians and Ten- 
nesseans. These two States were the birthplace of the new church. 
Cumberland Presbyterian emigrants settled over all these vast 
fields, and they all wrote back to the presbyteries begging for the 
gospel. The point of special interest is that all that vast Western 
and Southern field, which drew its population largely from Ten- 
nessee and Kentucky, was opened to white settlers at a time when 



n6 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period n. 

the Cumberland Presbyterians of those two States were intensely 
active in sending out missionaries. 

Two facts apparently, but not really, inconsistent meet us here. 
In all the older settlements where other denominations had estab- 
lished churches, and in all large towns, where a settled pastor was 
considered necessary to maintain the life of a congregation, our 
first preachers showed great reluctance to organizing churches. 
As a general rule, throughout this period, they absolutely refused, 
even when pressed to do so, to organize Cumberland Presbyterian 
congregations in such places. The other fact is, that in all the 
wild frontier, in the sparsest and most destitute neighborhoods, 
their readiness to organize churches, even where there seemed to be 
very little hope of any permanent supply of preachers, amounted 
to recklessness. The feeling that it was their duty to look first 
after the souls of those who were least likely to be looked after by 
others, no doubt prompted them to pursue this course. 

Another custom was universal. Every regular minister was 
required to assemble the congregations and examine them in the 
catechism. All the licensed and ordained ministers were called 
upon at every meeting of the presbyter)' to report whether they 
had complied with this requirement, and there were very few cases 
of failure. Copies of the catechism were in nearly every Cumber- 
land Presbyterian household, and every child, as well as every adult 
church member, was expected to study it. The old men who sur- 
vived this custom mourned over its loss, and refused to be com- 
forted, prophesying looseness and instability of doctrines as the 
fruit of its abandonment. In more than one case among the liter- 
ary remains of the fathers which have beeu placed in my hands are 
found large packages of our first catechism. 

The subject of a school for their candidates was discussed by 
each of the presbyteries. Then Nashville Presbytery (1822) asked 
the others to meet its delegates in convention to consider the ques- 
tion of a presbyterial school. This action was the forerunner of 
the synod's determination, in 1824, to establish a school for the 
whole church. 

A prejudice existed all through this early period against statis- 
tics. An order requiring statistical reports passed at one meeting 



Chapter XIII.] THE THREE PRESBYTERIES. 117 

of the synod, and was repealed at the next. At some of the ses- 
sions of presbytery the missionaries would report the number of 
conversions and accessions in their districts; but in most of the 
records no mention of any numbers can be found either in the 
reports of missionaries or reports of the Committee on the State 
of Religion. Great and precious revivals, without the mention of 
statistics, are reported at every meeting of presbytery. The clear- 
est index to the rate of growth is found in the organization of new 
presbyteries. In sixteen years the three presbyteries grew to eigh- 
teen, the least of which was as large as the Logan Presbytery at 
its organization. It is true that the Committee on the State of 
Religion, at each session of synod, did report the number of con- 
versions for the year; but the fact that no system of gathering 
statistics was in use by the presbyteries shows how incomplete 
these synodical reports must have been. 

Dr. Burrow was perhaps foremost among anti-statistical minis- 
ters in our church. He entered the ministry in the Elk Presby- 
tery, and was one of the noblest specimens of the itinerant preacher 
that any church ever had. He believed in reporting only to God. 
He was afraid of all counting, all sounding of trumpets; and all 
his life he advocated the "pay or no pay" rule about preaching; 
and not only advocated, but practiced it till his dying day. There 
were several thousand converts at his meetings the last year of his 
ministry. 

Another custom in those days was to hold camp-meetings in 
communities which contained not a single member of any church. 
Not only were such communities found on all the frontier, but 
there were many people also who had never heard a sermon in 
their lives. If a few families of unconverted pioneers could be 
persuaded to move to the place selected, and there entertain the 
visitors, the camp-meeting was held. Nor was it a difficult thing 
to find liberal-hearted men who would engage in this work. 

Out of many examples I select one instance of the sort, described 
by the venerable William Lynn, of Indiana, and published just be- 
fore his departure to his crown and kingdom. This camp-meeting 
was in Daviess County, Kentucky. There was not a single church 
member in all the neighborhood; but men who were willing to 



n8 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period n. 

camp and feed the multitudes were found, and the camp-meeting 
was held. At that meeting those twin heroes of the cross, Chap- 
man and Harris, were present, and also several probationers for the 
ministry. The meeting was greatly blessed of God, and among 
the converts were three men who afterward entered the ministry. 
This was a camp-meeting held by those heroic missionaries who 
are better known by the borrowed name of " circuit riders. " But 
much more remarkable cases are on record. In the tours of R. D. 
King, Reuben Burrow, and Daniel Patton among the destitute set- 
tlements, it was a common thing for them to persuade unconverted 
men to establish a camp-ground. Indeed, there were fewer and 
smaller obstacles to success among the rough men of the frontier, 
where no churches of any denomination existed, than there were 
where denominational prejudices were active. One thing is worthy 
of special commemoration: these unconverted campers generally 
were converted to God in these meetings, and had abundant reasons 
to rejoice that they had ever undertaken to camp. One dear lady 
of this class said God had paid her back in her own conversion and 
the conversion of thirteen members of her family. 

In all this period and long afterward the preaching of our min- 
isters belonged to a very thorough system. They believed the doc- 
trine that man is spiritually dead. This, to them, was not merely 
figurative, it was real. They taught that in his natural state there 
is no element of spiritual life in man. As well talk of cultivating 
a rose until you make it a bird, as talk of educating and training a 
man up into spiritual life. In his natural state man is thoroughly 
hostile to God and all spiritual good. Not only some of the imag- 
inations of the thoughts of his heart are evil, but "every imagina- 
tion. ' ' Not only that, but they are evil continually. These first 
preachers probed deep, and generally roused opposition and anger 
at first. Afterward the scales fell from the sinner's own eyes, until 
he saw his depravity and condemnation, and then cries of alarm 
and remorse broke forth from his lips. 

Concerning the new birth their teaching was equally thorough. 
Regeneration meant a new creation, not a mere training; not "let # 
the goat run with the sheep till it becomes a sheep;" but divine 
creative power was first to make it a sheep, and then training was 



Chapter XIII.] THE THREE PRESBYTERIES. 119 

to follow. They were equally thorough in their belief in the doc- 
trine of eternal future punishment, and they preached it every- 
where. About the atoning blood— the precious blood of Christ — 
their preaching was equally unambiguous and emphatic. They 
taught that our salvation rests on no mere moral influence and 
example, but on a divine vicarious sacrifice. The moral theory 
never had any place in the Cumberland Presbyterian system. 
They believed and taught that the Christian's legal standing before 
God is exclusively in Christ, and not at all in self — not partly in 
Christ and partly in works, but all in Christ. 

They were equally thorough in their belief of inspiration, even 
ad verbitm. In regard to God's indwelling presence, concerning 
his answers to the prayer of faith, and all similar matters, they 
held to no shallow system. If a probationer for the ministry in 
that day had taught any of the shallow systems of modern times 
he would have been instantly thrown overboard. Yet they insisted 
upon the necessity for good works, not as a procuring cause but as 
a fruit of the new life. If the fruit were lacking it was because 
the life was lacking. Works, out of love to Christ as the motive, 
they preached with great success. 

While I mention the preaching of these doctrines as a peculiar- 
ity of our early pulpits, I do not mean to teach that our people 
have repudiated these fundamental truths. I am quite sure they 
have not; but I am also sure that these doctrines are not pressed in 
the pulpits of this day as they were by the fathers. In my opinion 
we lose by this change. Leave a vital doctrine long silent, and a 
generation will grow up which will utterly reject it. 



i2o Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period n. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



HISTORIC CHURCHES-PLANTING CHURCHES IN TEN- 
NESSEE AND KENTUCKY. 

If called like them to cope 
In evil times with dark and evil powers, 
O be their faith, their zeal, their courage ours! 

— W. H. Burleigh. 

WHILE it is impossible, as a general thing, to give the his- 
tory of individual congregations, there are a few whose 
prominence requires special notice. The churches which existed 
before the revival, and afterward united with the Cumberland 
Presbyterians, have necessarily been noticed in the history of the 
revival. Of this class a few still exist as Cumberland Presbyterian 
congregations. Red River church, in Kentucky, is a center of his- 
toric interest. The old grave-yard, with dates which run back to 
1730, is itself a history. Among these graves is that of the eldest 
brother of the Rev. Finis Ewing — General Robert Ewing — born 
1760, a soldier in the revolutionary war, a member of the Kentucky 
legislature, etc. One of his sons still lives in the neighborhood. 
The grave of his daughter, Mary B., which is also there, has spe- 
cial interest for Cumberland Presbyterians. Her first husband was 
the Rev. Philip McDonnold. The parents of the Rev. A. M. Bryan 
lived and died in this neighborhood. When their old house was 
newly roofed, the old shingles were found to be pegged on. There 
were no nails in the country when that house was built, and iron 
was ten dollars a pound. Near this church the ruins of the old 
fort which protected the pioneers from the Indians can still be 
traced. It was called Mauldin's Station. Red River is still a 
revival church. The old log house is superseded by one of mod- 
ern construction, but the old fire still burns on its altars. This 
church is an exception, too, among the old churches, in another 



Chapter XIV.] HISTORIC CHURCHES. 121 

respect. It does not cling to the old programme of taking a 
preacher's labors without pay. 

The Beech church and Gasper River church are two more of 
our historic congregations. Gasper was for a time abandoned, its 
members going to Pilot Knob, but, since the war, it has been 
again revived, and still works for Jesus. The dates and names on 
the tombstones in its grave-yard form a precious record. 

The Beech church 1 was organized in 1800. Its first house of 
worship was a union meeting-house. The Rev. William McGee 
was its first pastor. In 18 10 this church joined the new denomina- 
tion. After McGee died this congregation had no regular pastor, 
but was supplied by Hugh Kirkpatrick and other itinerants. After 
many years they built their present stone church near the site of the 
union church, not being willing to leave the old grave-yard. In 
1832 they organized their first Sunday-school, the Rev. John Beard 
officiating. One hundred and twenty pupils were enrolled. An- 
nual camp-meetings, great revivals, with many ministers rising up 
from among the converts, make part of the history of the Beech 
church. 

When camp-meetings and itinerant supplies were given up, the 
Beech church, in spite of its Presbyterian origin, utterly failed to 
adopt the new programme of settled pastors in the true sense. By 
supplies and annual revival meetings it did, however, manage to 
keep alive. Like all the churches which pursue this course, it is 
sadly suffering, in spite of the "old fire" which is still there. 

Of the churches planted by the revival party before the division, 
there are several still in existence as Cumberland Presbyterian con- 
gregations. Among these are Smyrna, Goshen, and Big Spring in 
Tennessee, and Piney in Kentucky. There are several others, in 
Alabama, and in other places, but I can mention only a few prom- 
inent churches of this class. 

Perhaps the most interesting of these is Big Spring, Wilson 
County, Tennessee. In 1801 some of the revival party who lived 
too far from Bethesda to attend regularly there, resolved to have 
services at the Big Spring. They secured a monthly appointment 
from the Rev. William Hodge. The next fall they held a eainp- 

"■Rcvivalist, November 28, 1832. Hugh Kirkpatrick's sketch. 



123 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period ii. 

meeting on the original plan, without tents or cabins. x This meet- 
ing was not held on the spot now occupied by that church, but 
just at the head of the great spring which gave its name to the 
congregation. The reasons for moving the camp-ground years 
afterward to a smaller spring in the same neighborhood are un- 
known to the writer. In 1802 they built open sheds to camp under. 
These sloped to the ground. 2 When the Cumberland Presbyterian 
church was organized, the Rev. Thomas Calhoun was called to be 
pastor of this congregation. The word pastor must, however, be 
understood in a modified sense. It was in 1810 that the final loca- 
tion of a permanent encampment and the erection of a house of 
worship took place. The site was then changed to its present 
position. 

When the father of the Rev. Thomas Calhoun had finished his 
log-cabin, where the new camp-ground was located, he stuck his 
sycamore handspike down in the ground, and it took root and grew 
to a great tree which still stands. People used to go to the Big 
Spring camp-meeting from neighborhoods a huudred miles distant. 
Twenty of our most efficient ministers were converted at that 
camp-ground. Its first camp-meetings were glorious visitations of 
God's power, sending out all over the State an influence which will 
live forever. All the Western States owe some of their noblest 
church officers to the Big Spring camp-meetings. I have heard 
many of the orators whom this nation and Europe loved to honor, 
but, in my humble judgment, Calhoun surpassed them all. If 
Moody has a special baptism of power for his peculiar work, in a 
far higher sense did that baptism rest on Calhoun. Many a time 
at old Big Spring camp-ground have the vast assemblies gathered 
there felt and acknowledged that God spake to them through 
human lips. 

Thomas Calhoun lived near this church, and was pastor of this 
and Smyrna congregations from the time of his ordination till the 
close of his ministry — forty-five years. After his death, emigration 
to Texas seriously crippled Big Spring. The Lone Star State has 
drawn to its bosom nearly all the strength of many a Tennessee 
congregation. When the people of Big Spring sold their homes, 

I MSS. of Alec. Aston. 2 The Calhoun MSS. 



Chapter XIV.] HISTORIC CHURCHES. 123 

Baptists and others were the purchasers. Yet there have been great 
revivals among our people there in more recent times, and there is a 
respectable number of members now; but the very nearest of these 
live two miles from the church. It has, at last, been agreed to 
build a new house nearer the congregation. The old house of 
cedar logs, and those raised seats, and that pulpit with its ( ( sound- 
ing board," and its clerk's seat, will not be left intact. 

The Smyrna church, in Jackson County, Tennessee, also has an 
interesting history. In the private houses of two old men, William- 
son and Sadler, meetings were held by Alexander Anderson, William 
McGee, and Samuel King, in 1800. The next year a church was 
organized, a spot selected for a camp-ground, and Thomas Calhoun, 
then only a candidate, held a meeting on this spot. Colonel 
Smith, the father of the Rev. Robert Donnell's first wife, lived 
there. People used to go a hundred miles to attend the Smyrna 
camp-meetings. 

Calhoun' s life-work as a pastor was in Big Spring and Smyrna 
congregations. All of Smith County and part of two other coun- 
ties lay between his home and Smyrna church. A large part of 
this distance was filled with dense canebrakes. When there was 
snow, the high cane overhung the narrow path until it was diffi- 
cult to travel on horseback. Yet he never missed his appointments. 
Colonel Smith has left us a written statement about several of the 
thrilling sermons preached there by Calhoun, and about the far- 
reaching revivals which often resulted from the camp-meetings. 

I clip from the Banner of Peace the following notice of another 
historic church: 

In 1799 a few persons, members of the Presbyterian church, mostly 
from North Carolina, agreed to meet every Sabbath to read the Script- 
ures and pray with and for each other. They afterward constituted the 
Cumberland Presbyterian church which was organized at New Hope, 
Wilson County, Tenn. Their names are William and Catherine Gray, 
James and Margaret Stewart, Andrew and Elizabeth Bay, Alexander 
and Jane Kirkpatrick, John and Ann Kirkpatrick, David and Rebecca 
Kirkpatrick, Samuel and Sarah Motheral, Elias Morrison, Joseph Kirk- 
patrick, and Margaret Motheral. "These all died in the faith." The 
same year (1799) the Rev. William McGee preached the first sermon 
in the bounds of this congregation. From this time until 1810 they 



124 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period 11. 

enjoyed occasional circuit preaching by Samuel King, Alexander 
Anderson, Hugh Kirkpatrick, Thomas Calhoun, Alexander Chap- 
man, James B. Porter, and David Foster — all of whom have joined the 
sacramental host beyond death's stream, where parting is no more. 

In the fall of 1810 this congregation, afterward noted for camp- 
meetings, held their first camp-meeting near the " Double Islands," on 
Cumberland River. At this meeting they were much revived and 
encouraged; so much so, that the next year (1811) they purchased a lot 
of ground, erected camps, and held a second camp-meeting one mile 
above their first encampment. The Rev. William McGee, who was 
present, called this new camp-ground New Hope. Here, in 1812, the 
Rev. Hugh Kirkpatrick, with the names designated above, organized a 
Cumberland Presbyterian church, and preached once a month till 1S16, 
when he was succeeded by the Rev. John Provine, who preached 
monthly until 1830. From this date to 1843 they weie supplied with 
preaching by the Rev. George Donnell and the Rev. John L. Dillard. 
The former served four, the latter nine years. The Rev. M. S. Vaughan 
then accepted the charge and preached until 1850, when he was fol- 
lowed by the Rev. J. E. Davis, who continued two years. 

In the fall of 1852 the Rev. William D. Chadick was regularly in- 
stalled pastor of this church by the late Rev. F. R. Cossitt, D.D., and 
continued his labors till 1855, when the Rev. J. C. Bowden supplied 
the congregation one year. 

The Rev. M. S. Vaughan again received a call to this congregation 
and preached until 1859, when he was succeeded by the Rev. William 
A. Haynes, who served as pastor, with the exception of two or more 
years during the late war, till the spring of 1866. The Rev. W. W. Sud- 
darth succeeded Mr. Haynes, and labored till the fall of 1867, at which 
time he received a call from Lebanon congregation, and the Rev. M. S. 
Vaughan was called for the third time to New Hope. 

From these facts, which I find in the church records, we learn that 
New Hope has enjoyed the means of grace from 1799, and an organ- 
ized existence of fifty-six years' standing. During this time the church 
held and supported fifty-three camp-meetings. At these meetings hun- 
dreds, if not thousands, of sinners were brought to a knowledge of the 
truth as it is in Jesus, and obtained through grace a good hope of a 
happy immortality beyond time. Among these are many able ministers 
of the gospel. Some of them have laid down the gospel trumpet for 
glittering crowns in glory. Others, trembling under the effects of age 
and hard service in their high vocation, are yet preaching Jesus to a 
perishing woi'ld, each cheered on in his "labor of love" with this most 
precious promise of his divine Master, "Be thou faithful unto death, 
and I will give thee a crown of life." Felix H. Taylor, Clerk. 



Chapter XIV.] HISTORIC CHURCHES. 1 33 

The first church organized as a Cumberland Presbyterian church 
was Mt. Moriah, in Giles County, Tennessee. The Rev. C. N. 
Wood, lately gone to his reward, secured for me the historical 
sketch of this congregation which is here used. He was converted 
at one of the meetings at Mt. Moriah, and became a member of 
that congregation. This church was organized in March, 18 10, by 
Rev. James B. Porter. A very full history of its work, written by 
one of the elders, is before me. This congregation has had fifteen 
"pastors." Mr. Porter served from 1810 till the death of his wife 
in 18 15, when he resumed the life of an itinerant preacher. There 
was one year in Mr. Porter's pastorate of wonderful religious inter- 
est. The camp-meeting was unusually successful. The people 
carried the interest home with them. The earthquake (181 2) filled 
all the country with great solemnity. Mr. Porter knew how to fol- 
low up these impressions, and the whole year round there were 
conversions all through the neighborhood. The interest in the 
private houses resembled that in the Gasper River neighborhood 
fourteen years before. 

Carson P. Reed served this congregation as pastor sixteen years. 
After Reed came J. N. Edmiston who served three years. When 
he resigned, the church fell upon the miserable expedient of itin- 
erant supplies. One thing the session put on record in their his- 
tory which deserves emphasis. The church, they say, did not 
prosper under preaching from itinerants as it did under permanent 
pastors. 

The Rev. G. W. Mitchell became pastor of this church early in 
the year 1867, and served until the close of 1871. During this 
time the congregation enjoyed its greatest prosperity. The session 
testifies that the whole membership was quickened into new life 
and activity. This church has tested three systems: it has had 
regular pastors, it has depended on the ministrations of itinerant 
preachers, and at other times it has employed temporary supplies. 
Its highest success has been attained under the labors of regular 
pastors. During the five years in which the Rev. D. S. Boden- 
hamer (now of Trinity University) served as pastor, there were 
ninety-six accessions to the congregation. Twenty-two converts 
of this church have become preachers. There are some noted 



126 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period n. 

names on the list, such as N. P. Modrall, C. P. Reed, W. S. Burney, 
I<e Roy Woods, C. N. Wood, all now gone to their reward, besides 
a noble band who still labor for Jesus. 

The venerable Joseph Brown, one of our old preachers, made 
his home near this church, and was buried in its cemetery. When 
he was nearly a hundred years old he would ask permission to 
stand in the pulpit beside the preacher, in order to catch every 
word. As his hearing was bad, he would hold his ear close up to 
the preacher, and occasionally cry out ' ' Glory to God ! ' ' 

This congregation has now a large brick church, built in 1856, 
and is in a prosperous condition. Its camp-meetings were kept up, 
with one intermission, until 1853, when they gave place to pro- 
tracted meetings. 

Another one of our first churches is Goshen, in Franklin Coun- 
ty, Tennessee, on the Boiling Fork of Elk River, near the Cum- 
berland Mountains. 1 Its site is beautiful. Nearly all the first 
settlers here were Scotch-Irish Presbyterians. In 181 1 the Rev. 
Samuel King and the Rev. William McGee persuaded the people 
to hold a camp-meeting. A shed and camps were built, and King 
and McGee held the meeting. There were hundreds of conver- 
sions, and a Cumberland Presbyterian church was organized. An 
incident of this meeting is characteristic of the times. King 
preached on the Sabbath. As the sermon progressed the solem- 
nity grew oppressive. The mighty power of God rested like a 
weight upon the people. Men almost held their breath. The 
preacher felt it as well as the others. By and by the solemnity 
grew so great that even the preacher's tongue was silent. He 
stood a moment with looks of unutterable awe, and then went 
down from the pulpit and started to the woods. When he had 
gone about a hundred yards, he turned abruptly back, and entered 
the pulpit. There was no longer any look of awe, but a holy, 
rapturous light on his face, and he resumed his sermon with a 
thrilling power which swept every thing before it. From that day 
on that congregation has been noted for its revivals. Several of 
its converts have become ministers. 

1 The facts concerning this church were furnished by Dr. J. B. Cowan, of Tulla- 
homa. Tennessee. 



Chapter XIV.] HISTORIC CHURCHES. 127 

In 181 3 Robert Donnell began preaching in Nashville, Tennes- 
see. Mr. Craighead was then in charge of a small chnrch in Nash- 
ville, and he exerted himself to keep the people from hearing the 
new minister. At first neither preaching place nor hospitality was 
extended to him. He preached in the court-honse, and boarded at 
the hotel. The court-honse was afterward closed against him, but 
the mayor offered him the city hall. After Donnell had filled a 
few appointments in this hall, the mayor died, and the hall also 
was closed against the preacher. So great was the opposition in 
town, that he consented to move his appointment to the dwelling- 
house of Mr. Castleman in the country. Here several distinguished 
Tennesseans were converted. Donnell' s tour in East Tennessee, 
described a little further on in this book, interrupted his Nashville 
work. By and by he secured the assistance of the Rev. James B. 
Porter, and held a protracted meeting in the court-house. He and 
Porter lodged at the hotel, but when they once got a hearing, hos- 
pitality was extended to them by various families. The preaching 
in this meeting stirred all Nashville. Under one of Donnell' s ser- 
mons Felix Grundy, an unconverted man, afterward United States 
senator, sprung to his feet, seized his friend, Colonel Foster, also a 
United States senator, by the hand, exclaiming, ' ' That is the truth, 
Foster, every word of it, and it will stand at the day of judgment." 
Donnell and Porter organized a church at this meeting, and raised 
funds for a building. 



i28 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period n. 



CHAPTER XV. 



EARLY MISSIONS TO THE INDIANS. 

Hark! from the West a voice is heard, 

A voice beyond the mountain's side; 
It breaks along the deep, dark wood 

Where roams the savage in his pride. 
A star appears, its cheering raj 
Dawns on the red man's darksome way. 

—5. O. Wright. 

THE house of Samuel McAdow, in which our first presbytery- 
was organized, was not more than thirty miles from the 
Indian territory. These Indians were still in their wild and savage 
state. There were, it is true, a few exceptions, but only a few. 
Most of these red men were as far away from civilization or Chris- 
tianity then as the naked sons of the forest who first greeted Colum- 
bus over three centuries earlier. Some of the Mississippi Indians 
of that day wore no clothing, and kept up all the habits of savage 
life. There is a testimony of great significance from the Presbyte- 
rian General Assembly to the effect that the revival of 1800 produced 
new interest in the evangelization of the red man and the negro. 
The facts abundantly sustain this testimony. Gideon Blackburn 
belonged to the revival party in East Tennessee. He planted a 
mission among the Cherokees, and devoted years of toil to that 
interest. None of the anti-revival party of that day ever became 
missionaries. 

In Thomas Calhoun's first evangelistic tours he entered the 
newly settled portions of Tennessee before the whites raised their 
first crop, and before the Indians ceased to roam over the country. 
He and others held a camp-meeting at the spring where afterward 
Monroe, the county town of Overton County, Tennessee, was built. 
Roving bands of Cherokee Indians attended the meeting. One of 
these became greatly impressed, and there are reasons to believe he 



Chapter XV.] EARLY MISSIONS TO THE INDIANS. I2C. 

was there converted. He went home and named an Indian town 
after Calhoun. This was before the organization of the Cumber- 
land Presbyterian church. In talking to Calhoun about these early 
days, I once expressed some surprise at his frequent mention of 
Indians attending his meetings. His reply was, u Why, the In- 
dian line was just over here on Duck River." 

In Calhoun's and Donnell's tour in East Tennessee (1815) they 
held two protracted meetings for the Indians. One of these was at 
Pumpkin Town, and there was deep interest manifested by the 
hearers. The Rev. James Stewart also preached to the Indians 
before the existence of our first missionary board. 

All three of the presbyteries which composed our first synod 
began early experimenting on plans for missionary work in their 
own vast bounds. Missionaries were sent to our new territories as 
fast as these territories were opened, but societies formed with a 
special view to work among the Indians and the heathen originated 
in 1818, and were organized in all three of the presbyteries in the 
spring of that year. The missionary impulse in the three presby- 
teries was simultaneous, and the indications are that it started with 
Samuel King, James Stewart, and Robert Bell. All of these men 
belonged to the Elk Presbytery. A constitution 1 for a ladies' mis- 
sionary society was drawn up by Robert Bell, and submitted in 
March, 18 18, to the congregations of Elk Presbytery; and that plan 
is the same one on which the missionary societies in all three of 
the presbyteries were organized. This points to Elk rather than 
Logan Presbytery 2 as the first to move in this work. But its pri- 
ority, if it existed, was one of only a few days at most, for the 9th 
of April 3 of that year was the birthday of the ladies' society in 
Russellville, Kentucky. One thing can be fairly claimed by the 
Elk Presbytery: its missionary board (there was a central board for 
the presbytery) was the first to send missionaries to the Indians. 
In October, 1818, the Elk missionary board sent Samuel King and 
William Moore to a work which lay along the borders of the Indian 
country on the Tombigbee River. 4 When these two men returned, 



x The Bell papers. 2 This honor has been claimed for Logan Presbytery 

^Medium, 1846, p. 326. 

* Minutes of Elk Presbytery, Vol. I., p. 40. 

9 



130 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period ii. 

in the spring of 1819, and reported to their presbytery, 1 they made a 
strong appeal in behalf of the red men, representing them as eager 
to hear the gospel, and to have a missionary school located among 
them. The language of this appeal would indicate that the schools 
under the American Board in Mississippi were not yet in existence. 
The missionary board of Elk Presbytery 2 then sent Samuel King 
and Robert Bell, in the fall of 1819, to travel as evangelists among 
the Chickasaw and Choctaw Indians. On their return Mr. King 
brought a young Indian convert with him, intending to educate 
him for the ministry. He kept this boy at his own house, and sent 
him to school. 

These missionaries made arrangements in the Choctaw Nation 
to secure a location and money for a missionary school, but their 
plans were thwarted. Then the missionary society of Elk Presby- 
tery sent Mr. Bell to establish a school in the white settlements 
close enough to the border for the Indians to patronize it. Accord- 
ingly in May, 1820, Mr. Bell opened a school on the east side of the 
Tombigbee River, nearly opposite the dividing line between the 
Chickasaws and the Choctaws. He taught here only four weeks, 
when the missionary board of Elk Presbytery directed him to move 
the school into the Chickasaw Nation, the board having sent men 
thither to negotiate a treaty for that purpose. 

The Chickasaw Nation had never been at war with our people. 
It had just sold out to the whites all that portion of Tennessee and 
Kentucky lying between the Tennessee River and the Mississippi, 
a delta far better known in early times for David Crockett's bear 
hunts than for its cotton. The Chickasaws, so long the near neigh- 
bors of Tennesseans, were still neighbors to the white people farther 
south. Only the Tombigbee River (Indian name Itomba Igoba) lay 
between them and the white settlements. 

The Chickasaws of Mississippi, at the time our first mission 
was opened, were in advance of other Indians. Many of them had 
built cabins to live in. These were plastered tight with mud. 
The door was in the back part of the hut. There was no floor but 
the ground, and the cabin had but one room. The dead were 

1 Minutes of Elk Presbytery, Vol. I., p. 45. 2 Ibid., p. 49. 



Chapter XV.] EARLY MISSIONS TO THE INDIANS. 131 

buried in the cabin under the bed. The corpse was doubled up 
before it was buried, and the vault, after receiving the mortal re- 
mains, was closely plastered over with mud. When the body was 
buried the squaws present took down their hair and wore it dishev- 
elled around their faces for one whole moon. During sickness they 
had what was called a sick dance. They laid the sick out wrapped 
in blankets, and danced around them. Some of these Indians 
raised patches of corn and sweet potatoes; only a few raised cot- 
ton. [See Ladies' Pearl, November, i860, p. 76.] 

The traditions of the Tombigbee River surpass in thrilling in- 
terest those of the Mississippi. At no spot do more of those tra- 
ditions center than at Cotton Gin Port. Here at an early day the 
United States government established a cotton gin among the 
Indians to induce them to engage in the cultivation of cotton. 
Levi Colbert, the most enlightened of all the Chickasaw chiefs, 
moved to the neighborhood and devoted himself to persuading 
his people to raise cotton, he himself setting the example. Here 
at Cotton Gin the United States government had a post-office. 
The country on the eastern side of the Tombigbee, in Robert 
Bell's day, belonged to the white people, and some families lived 
there, the father of Dr. C. H. Bell among them. Cotton Gin Port 
as early as 1800 began to be a shipping point for emigrants to the 
Tensas and other new countries. Canoes lashed together and cov- 
ered with a floor of cane made the boats. The wreck * of one such 
boat at night, just below Cotton Gin, furnishes one of those thrill- 
ing traditions of the Tombigbee of which there are so many; but 
this tradition is eclipsed in interest by the more recent one of the 
burning of the Eliza Battle, and the fearful loss of life on that bitter 
night in March, 1858. A beloved Cumberland Presbyterian min- 
ister, A, M. Newman, was among those who perished when that 
steamboat was burned. Many of the passengers escaped on cotton 
bales. A gentleman who was on the boat gave me an account of 
that catastrophe. Newman threw a bale of cotton into the river 
and placed his wife and child upon it, and then leaped in him- 
self without any cotton bale. Mrs. Newman and daughter were 

1 Picket's Alabama, Vol. I., pp. 187-189. 



132 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period ir. 

taken up by my informant and saved, but Newman perished in the 
waves. 

When Robert Bell's two comrades (the commissioners of Elk 
Presbytery) arrived at Cotton Gin Port, they went to Levi Colbert's 
house. Bell had preached in that house on his former visit. Col- 
bert was eager for the establishment of the school, and to have it 
located near him. He assembled the king and chiefs of the Nation 
at his house, where the three commissioners of the Board of Mis- 
sions of Elk Presbytery entered into treaty with them. The com- 
missioners promised instruction in mechanic arts and agriculture, 
as well as in the literary course. They promised, also, within the 
limits of their ability, to teach, board, and clothe the indigent 
gratuitously. The chiefs promised protection, and the free use of 
land for cultivation. This treaty was signed the nth of Septem- 
ber, 1820, the names of the white commissioners standing on the 
ri^ht and those of the king and chiefs on the left. The names 
affixed to this agreement are: Robert Bell, Samuel King, and 
James Stewart, for the mission. On the part of the Indians the 
names are: Shako Tookey, king of the Nation; Tisho Mingo, 
Appa Suntubba, Samuel Sealy, William McGalba, James Colbert, 
and Levi Colbert, chiefs. 

Three miles below Cotton Gin Port, at the base of the bluff, 
were some springs of pure water. This spot was selected for the 
school. It is seven miles from what is now the town of Aberdeen, 
Mississippi. 

At the same time that the Elk Presbytery was taking these 
steps for an Indian mission, it was also urging upon the General 
Synod the propriety of having a board of missions for the whole 
church. Elk Presbytery was not alone in this view of the case. 
In the fall of 18 19, at the meeting of the synod, it was resolved to 
have one central board, and to make all the others tributary. The 
arrangement made was certainly novel. The ladies' missionary 
society of Logan Presbytery, without ceasing to be a presbyterial 
society, was also made the general society of the church, and all 
the ministers of the church were appointed trustees. Robert Don- 
nell, of Elk Presbytery, became the president of the general board 
at Russell ville, and Bell's mission was turned over to this board. 



Chapter XV.] EARLY MISSIONS TO THE INDIANS. 1 33 

The antecedents of the Russellville board deserve a passing 
notice. In September, 181 7, H. A. Hunter, of Russellville, Ken- 
tucky, professed religion at Liberty church, near Russellville. His 
mother also became concerned about her soul. The young con- 
vert, Hunter, with one other Christian to aid him, began a weekly 
prayer-meeting in his father's ball-room. This was with the con- 
sent of his parents. Then the Rev. Finis Ewing and the Rev. 
William Barnett 1 came and held a meeting in that ball-room. 
There was no meeting-house then in the place. The town had 
been nick-named "The Devil's Camp-ground." This meeting in 
the ball-room was greatly blessed. The whole town was revolu- 
tionized, and several of the converts entered the holy ministry. At 
the close of the meeting Finis Ewing organized a ladies' mission- 
ary society in that same ball-room. 2 By request of the ladies of 
this society, the Logan Presbytery 3 became its board of directors. 
After the action in 18 19, consolidating the missionary work of the 
church, this society had two boards of directors. As the society of 
Logan Presbytery it had the ministers of that presbytery for one of 
these boards ; as the general missionary society of the church it had 
all the preachers in the church for the other. Cumberland Presby- 
terians had no chartered board of missions until 1845. Men even 
opposed chartered boards as savoring of Church and State. 

It was under this curiously organized society that Mr. Bell's 
mission was placed soon after the school begam The site chosen 
for Bell's mission was in a beautiful country; but in the early set- 
tlements there was a good deal of sickness. Bell and his wife 
opened their school in the fall of 1820, in Levi Colbert's house, 
which he generously tendered for that purpose. 

Robert Bell was one of " the young men" (licentiates) arraigned 
before the commissioners in 1805. A memorial for his ordination 
was pending when his presbytery was dissolved. His heroic wife 
belonged to the McCutcheon family of Logan County. Bell pro- 
fessed religion at McGready's meeting, September, 1800. When 
he felt himself called to preach he commenced a thorough classical 

1 Dr. Cossitt's Life and Times of Ewing, p. 253. 

2 Medium, 1846, p. 326. 

Minutes of Logan Presbytery, May, 1818. 



134 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period n. 

course of study; but under the heavy pressure of calls from the des- 
titute regions, and by the advice of the old preachers, he abandoned 
his studies and took the circuit. In his later writings he expresses 
his profound conviction, based on a life-time of close observation, 
that it would have been better for him to have completed the re- 
quired course of study. Bell's manuscript autobiography is thor- 
oughly interesting. He was living in Logan County, Kentucky, 
when McGready's great meetings began. He attended every one 
of them. His account of the commission and the council is also 
deeply interesting. 

Robert Bell was the grandfather of the Rev. Dr. C. H. Bell, so 
well known in the church as general superintendent of missions. 
The father of Dr. C. H. Bell superintended the erection of tempo- 
rary buildings on the site chosen for the mission, while Robert Bell 
and his wife taught temporarily in Colbert's house. In four weeks 
these temporary buildings were ready, and the school was moved 
into them. 

In 1823 the Rev. John C. Smith and his wife were sent to assist 
in the mission. With a variable amount of hired help a tan-yard 
was built, a farm cleared and fenced, and a blacksmith shop and a 
saddler's shop established. Much of the manual labor was done 
by the missionary himself. With a family of thirty boarders, Mrs. 
Bell often had less, never more, than two assistants in the cooking 
and washing departments, though she generally had some ladies to 
aid her in the work of teaching the girls to spin and weave. 

Government aid, under a general regulation of the United 
States, was secured for Bell's mission. The United States was 
aiding schools, under certain restrictions, in all the Indian tribes 
within our domains. Often, however, rivalry sprung up in the 
struggles of different churches to secure this aid. It was thus our 
first bargain for a school among the Choctaws was lost, and thus 
other far darker wrongs blackened the annals of our Indian schools 
in the North-west. Mr. Bell's mission secured government aid to 
the amount of about three hundred dollars per annum. This is 
the average, for there was an unaccountable irregularity both in 
the government aid and also in the contributions sent by the mis- 
sionary board. The latter amounted, in 1824, to over a thousand 



Chapter XV.] EARLY MISSIONS TO THE INDIANS. 135 

dollars, but sunk to $272 in 1826, and to $142 in 1830. Until the 
last two years of the mission's life, during which no help was sent, 
the annual receipts from both these sources ranged between $367, 
the lowest, up to $1,494, the highest. The average, omitting the 
two years just mentioned, was $640. Out of this Mr. Bell paid all 
his assistants, and boarded, taught, and clothed gratuitously an 
average of twenty indigent students annually. His chief reliance 
for support was on his farm, which the students helped him to cul- 
tivate. There were also ten or twelve students who paid their own 
way. The assistant teachers were often changed. I find half a 
dozen persons mentioned at one time or another as assistants, who 
had grown weary of the hardships and the poverty, and left the 
institution; but Mr. Bell could not be driven away by hardships. 
If his meat gave out he mounted his horse, rode back to Tennes- 
see, and begged hogs from his old acquaintances, and drove them 
himself to the mission. If the money gave out, he drew on 
his own little estate, hoping perhaps to be repaid, but if he had 
such hope, he had to wait till he got to heaven for its fulfillment. 
If his teachers left him, he put his son and daughter in their 
places, and doubled his own labors until other help could be had. 
He was farmer, preacher, traveling agent, government agent, with 
orders to collect information in philology, Indian archaeology, In- 
dian traditions, and to report in detail on the ornithology, zoology, 
and all the other "ologies" of the land he lived in. 

It was hard enough to struggle as he had to do, without hav- 
ing burdens of heart-ache superadded by opposition from ministers 
of his own church. One of the dark backgrounds to every beauti- 
ful picture of the Cumberland Presbyterian ministry is the element 
of opposition to foreign missions which has always been found 
among the preachers. It is never opposition to foreign missions 
per se, but opposition on the plea of some fancied inexpediency. 
This element has never been very large, but it exists even to-day 
in all its mischievous power. It is no native growth. Its fitting 
home is with the Antinomians. 

At the close of the late civil war, while the South was still a 
smoking ruin and the people impoverished, the General Assembly 
of the Southern Presbyterian church had one man who raised the 



136 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period 11. 

question of expediency in regard to foreign missions. Then there 
rose in his place a man who still wore his army suit because too 
poor to buy any other, and uttered a sentence which deserves to 
be written in gold. He said: "To debate whether we shall now 
undertake missions to the heathen is to debate whether we shall 
now do what the Lord Jesus told us to do." There was not 
another voice raised in that Assembly against the expediency of 
foreign missions. 

A suggestive history showing how a strong man was cured of his 
opposition to Bell's mission is found in a letter written by the Rev. 
Thomas Calhoun. This man was the Rev. William Barnett. The 
missionary society fell upon the expedient of sen.ding~h.im to inspect 
the mission for them, and report its condition. He accepted the 
appointment, and made his tour of inspection. Mr. Bell showed 
him all the exercises of the school, and had the children sing for 
him. This completely won him, and from that day onward the 
mission had no warmer friend than William Barnett. It would be 
well if all opposers of foreign missions could be brought into con- 
tact with those who are now laboring among the heathen, and see 
the fruit of missionary work. 'There were at least half a dozen 
cases of opposition to Bell's mission cured by visiting the insti- 
tution. Opposition to missions, by good men, only needs to have 
the light shine on it, and it dies. 

There is another interesting case. The Rev. William Moore, 
who was one of the first advocates of a mission school, removed, 
before Bell's school was established, to South Alabama, where at 
that time we had no organized churches. A few families of Cum- 
berland Presbyterian immigrants were scattered in the vast whirl- 
pool of* new settlers from different countries, like Virgil's wrecked 
Trojans in the boiling waves of the ocean. * He wrote to Mr. Bell 
that he could do nothing in that new field for the mission. Mr. 
Bell made a vigorous presentation of the laws of success in home 
work, and their relations to a faithful discharge of our duties to the 
heathen; and Mr. Moore became a regular contributor himself, and 
collected money also from that pioneer people for Bell's mission. 

Among Mr. Bell's papers are letters from nearly all the minis- 

1 " Rari nantes in gurgite vasto." 



Chapter XV.] EAKXY MISSIONS TO THE INDIANS. 137 

ters who belonged to the synod at that day. Bell's correspondence 
with the Hon. John C. Calhoun, Secretary of War, is in these files. 
A copy of a letter from the Indian chief, I^evi Colbert, is here 
given: 

Chickasaw Nation, September 25, 1822. 
Friend and Brother of the Cumberland Missionary Board: 

I suppose you wish to know what the people of this Nation think 
of your missionary school, and what encouragement they seem disposed 
to give it. They talk favorably of the school, and are well satisfied 
with the manner in which it has been conducted. They wish it to be 
continued and carried into full operation, so that our poor people who 
are not able to board their children can have them educated. The 
more wealthy part of our Nation will give some assistance. ... I have 
talked to the chiefs in council two or three times, and have met but little 
opposition. . . . We want our Nation to be enlightened, and to under- 
stand that gospel which you missionaries preach, and we wish all our 
good friends among the white people to pray for us. 
I am your sincere friend. 

Levi Colbert. 

Mr. Bell, like all our first preachers, considered camp-meetings 
an indispensable part of the church machinery. We are not sur- 
prised, therefore, at finding annual camp-meetings at the mission 
mentioned in these records. Among the names of men who assisted 
in these meetings I find Alexander Chapman, David Foster, James 
S. Guthrie, James Stewart, and William Barnett. At one of the 
camp-meetings held at Bell's Mission Station was a convert whose 
name afterward became a household word in West Tennessee. I 
mean the Rev. Israel S. Pickens. He and his wife had been em- 
ployed to assist in the establishment. Several of the Pickens fam- 
ily had, from time to time, been employed as assistants in some of 
the many departments of work about the mission, and thus it came 
about that Israel Pickens was at one of the camp-meetings. 

Some extracts from Mrs. Bell's diary will now be given. The 
first is for 1823: 

June 11. — Mr. Blair left us this morning on his way to Florence, 
after supplies for the use of the school. 

June 14.— Received a letter from the sub-agency of this Nation in- 
forming us that the United States government had appropriated the 
sum of four hundred dollars for this institution this year, for the pay- 



138 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period 11. 

ment of the tuition of poor children; also informing us that five hun- 
dred dollars had been sent us last year, of which we never before heard. 
This was owing to the absence of the agent. We humbly trust that 
this assistance, when obtained, will enable us" to bring a number more 
of these poor destitute heathen to a knowledge of the gospel. 

June 15. — Mr. Smith, with most of the mission family, crossed the 
river to preach to the white people, just on the margin of a Christian 
land, where we had the inestimable privilege of worshiping God 
along with a respectable congregation. 

It must have been sweet, after so long a time spent with unciv- 
ilized heathen, to meet a congregation of at least nominal Chris- 
tians; but Mrs. Bell and the mission family were just as eager to 
attend meetings among the red men. 

She says, in another place: 

Mr. Smith preached at Cotton Gin Port to-day, from Matt. xvi. 26. 
There was a good audience, and they gave uncommonly good attention. 
Two of our scholars left the station to-day without leave, or any known 
cause. We suppose they have gone home to see their friends. They 
have been but a short time in school, and were greatly attached to their 
old habits. 

June 20.— Attended to our weekly examination, which was satisfac- 
tory. The exercise in vocal music made us hope for the day when 
Indian congregations, instead of engaging in war songs and supersti- 
tious dances, will join in singing the songs of Zion. 

June 21. — Received a letter from Mr. Bell, dated Limestone County, 
Alabama. He is well, and has encouraging success in raising funds for 
the mission. 

Thus often did the missionary have to leave his work and go 
out to raise funds. 

June 22. — For lack of an interpreter, Mr. Smith was prevented from 
filling his appointment to-day at Mr. James Wolf's, three miles distant. 

Complaint about the great difficulty in securing regular and 
persevering attendance comes up in all Mr. Bell's reports, as it does 
in all the accounts which I ever saw of schools for Indians. The 
wild, free sons of the forest will not be bound down to hard study. 
They can learn well enough while they are at it, but they will not 
stick to their task. Of the twenty Indians sent to Cumberland 
University during my connection with that institution, only one 
was graduated and he only in the scientific course. 



Chapter XV.] EARLY MISSIONS TO THE INDIANS. 139 

June 26. — Mr. Smith saw four white men on their way to see a 
dance among the Indians. These white men were all drinking, and 
some of them were already drunk. It is bad enough for white people 
to encourage the superstitious dances of the Indians, but to carry drunk- 
enness among them is too bad. It is this which makes the chief obstacle 
to the success of missions. 

July 16. — We were visited to-day by Colonel G , who has been 

bitterly opposed to our mission. The children read and sang for him. 
He is completely won over. O that all our people who oppose the 
mission would make us a visit! 

The mission boarded, taught, and clothed the pupils. Over 
half of these were charged no fees at all, they being too poor to 
pay. By order of the board the free list was limited to twenty. 
The school usually numbered thirty-five. A touching case is given 
in Mrs. Bell's diary of two bright Indian children below the regu- 
lation age, who were brought to the school by their parents. They 
were very poor. The school was overtaxed and oppressed by the 
number of beneficiary pupils, which was already two more than 
the board's limit. But these naked children of the forest were 
specially bright, and Mrs. Bell determined to take them. 

The hardships and sufferings of these missionaries were equal 
to any borne by missionaries to distant heathen lands. Often the 
money sent the mission was so greatly under par that it was diffi- 
cult to use it. Mr. Bell, besides all his other labors, cultivated a 
considerable farm, and in this way helped to keep the establish- 
ment from starving. Many of the Indians who paid either all or 
part of their boarding, paid in cattle, and the supply of milk was 
largely depended on as a means of support. The contributions 
from the churches were a curious medley. Cotton cloth was a 
chief item. Raw cotton, beeves, socks, flax cloth, and jeans were 
also among the contributions. 

At different times persons sent by the missionary board to visit 
the mission made stirring reports of the hardships and privations 
suffered by the missionaries. At no time was there a sufficient 
supply of either money, clothing, or provisions sent to them. The 
Rev. David Foster and the Rev. James S. Guthrie, after a visit to 
this mission, wrote to the board as follows: 

Mr. and Mrs. Bell have more labor of different kinds than their 



140 . Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period 11. 

strength can stand, and unless they have in future some assistance their 
days must be shortened. 

An extract from Mrs. Bell's journal will snow how painful it 
was to the missionaries to reject the applications of the destitute: 

January 4, 1823. — Mr. Pitchland has visited us again this day, solic- 
iting us to take under our care another little son, .... but we were 
obliged to turn him off; and, with hearts full of regret, we informed 
him that we were obliged to circumscribe our wishes for want of funds 
to furnish the necessary support. 

It was the custom of Mr. Bell and his assistants, one of whom 
was always a preacher, to go out into the Indian country and 
preach. Iyevi Colbert, the chief already mentioned, opened his 
house on such occasions as a preaching place. 

Regular quarterly reports of the work done by this mission 
were sent to the missionary board. The average number taught 
per session was about thirty-five. The programme for daily duties 
in the mission was reported to the board. It was as follows: 

At daylight the trumpet is blown, the signal for all to rise. In half 
an hour it is blown again, the signal for family worship, which all, 
black, white, and red, are to attend in the dining-room. After worship 
Mr. Bell and the boys go to the farm and Mrs. Bell and the girls to 
spinning and weaving. At eight o'clock comes breakfast; then come 
school hours till twelve; then an hour's interval for dinner and rest; 
school again from one till four; then labor in field and loom till six; 
then supper and worship. All the students share alike in the manual 
labor, which amounts, in summer, to four hours daily. 

Manual labor schools for white people as well as for Indians had 
just come into fashion. 

Two or three years before the purchase of this country from the 
Indians its cession to the whites was agitated to an extent that 
seriously interfered with the mission. Then came the startling 
tidings that the chiefs had signed a treaty with the United States 
government agreeing to vacate all the soil of Mississippi. Although 
the promised exodus from the State dragged its reluctant fulfill- 
ment through many bitter years, yet even the prospect of a treaty 
two years before its ratification terminated all aid for the mission, 
both from government and church. 

Mr. Bell tried for two years to carry on the school without aid, 



Chapter XV.] EAKXY MISSIONS TO THE INDIANS. 141 

relying on the farm, tuition fees, and his own private funds for 
support; but the excitement among the Indians over the sale of 
their country, and the clamor of government agents who were 
struggling to remove the Indians, made it absolutely necessary to 
close the mission. Mr. Bell's final settlement with the board was 
made in 1832, but he remained in the same country the rest of his 
days, preaching to the white people. The fruits of this mission 
are abundant to-day among the Indians of the West, as well as 
among the redeemed in glory. As the second period of this his- 
tory extends only to 1829, a ^ further discussion of the church's 
work among the Indians belongs to a later chapter. A noble bio- 
graphical sketch of Mr. Bell has been published by Dr. Beard, to 
which sketch the reader is referred. It is evident, however, that 
Dr. Beard never saw Mr. Bell's autobiography. It is in manuscript 
and will be placed in the Cumberland University library. It de- 
serves to be published. 



142 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period u. 



CHAPTER XVI. 



PLANTING CHURCHES IN THE NEW TERRITORIES OF 
EAST AND WEST TENNESSEE AND THE KENTUCKY 
PURCHASE. 

Far off on the desert mountains 

To wandering souls it came, 
That sound of a tender message, 

That pleading in Christ's name; 
It followed the sorrowful path thej trod, 
Till the wandering spirits were turned to God. 

—A. A. 

IN the very States where the church originated there were new 
fields opened to white settlers after the church was organized. 
These were the Hiwassee Purchase, in East Tennessee, all of what 
is now called West Tennessee, and all that portion of Kentucky 
lying west of the Tennessee River. All of East Tennessee up to 
1815 was unbroken soil, so far as our people were concerned. Long 
before our evangelists went to this field pressing demands for the 
revival preachers to visit East Tennessee had been made. Early 
in 1800 visitors to the camp-meetings had carried the revival spirit 
over the mountains and spread it among the churches. Opposition 
arose there, as it did in McGready's field. The ministry were 
divided there too on the revival question. The doctrine of a gen- 
eral atonement began to stir the Presbyterian churches there also. 
The cry for more preachers rang through those mountains as it 
had rung along the banks of the Cumberland. From Mr. McMul- 
len's MS. we learn that all the presbyteries of East Tennessee were 
stirred on the question, "Did Christ die for everybody? " The 
revival awakened that question wherever it entered Presbyterian 
communities. The cry for more preachers also arose wherever the 
revival went. This, while historically a fact, was also a logical 
consequence. Itinerant preaching also followed wherever the 
revival entered new settlements. 






Chapter XVI.] EAST AND WEST TENNESSEE. 143 

The outcry against disorder in church was raised by the Old 
Side party in East Tennessee, as it had been in Cumberland. Dr. 
Henderson led one party and Dr. Blackburn the other. But justice 
to Dr. Henderson requires me to state that his opposition to the 
revival never went to such extremes, nor resorted to such eccle- 
siastical violence as characterized the anti-revival party in the Ken- 
tucky Synod. 

We have preserved to us a letter of remonstrance written by 
Mr. McGready to his Old ^ide brethren in East Tennessee. He 
says: 

Tell my brethren to let the Lord choose his own way of working; 
to bid the Spirit of God welcome, even though he should choose to 
work among them as he does among the Methodists. Tell them to be 
more afraid of sinners being damned for want of religion, than of what 
they call disorder when sinners cry out for mercy. 

Before our church sent any evangelists into East Tennessee, an 
ecclesiastical barrier was interposed between them and even the 
revival party of that country. The Presbyterian church had for- 
bidden its clergy recognizing as ministers any of the Cumberland 
Presbyterian preachers, and had also forbidden its members com- 
muning with the members of our church at the Eord's table. 
Therefore our first missionaries there had to encounter the open 
opposition of one party and the lack of co-operation from the 
other. Our first evangelists in that field were Thomas Calhoun 
and Robert Donnell. The published dates of this first mission to 
East Tennessee are all wrong. I have before me Calhoun's writ- 
ten history of it, and I also have Robert Donnell' s diary, kept 
throughout that whole tour. That diary says: " Through the 
mercy of God we met in McMinnville, Tennessee, the last day of 
June, 18 1 5, according to agreement." 

They began their meetings in Sequatchie Valley first, where 
they had good success; and then they crossed the mountains to the 
field which they had chosen. Their first work was at Washington. 
Then they went into the Hiwassee country, though Indians still 
occupied large portions thereof. They next visited Morganton 
and Maryville: They expected to preach in the Presbyterian 
church at Maryville, as its pastor, Dr. Anderson, was one of the 



144 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period n. 

revival party. They had sent their appointment to him, but the 
ecclesiastical interdict was not to be trampled on. When they 
entered the church, though a little in advance of the preaching 
hour, Dr. Anderson was up preaching. At the close of his sermon 
he called on Donnell to conclude. "Donnell gave an exhortation 
which set the house on fire." 1 The soberest of Dr. Anderson's 
members, and even his elders, went to shouting. The people rose 
to their feet and crowded around Donnell, begging him to stay and 
protract the meeting. Dr. Anderson took the evangelists home 
with him to dinner. At the table he said, "The Methodists (!) 
gave Mr. Donnell a very hearty welcome to-day." The evangel- 
ists then left an appointment for a meeting to be held at the sem- 
inary, and went to some of Dr. Blackburn's churches, where they 
were kindly received. The doctrines they preached were indorsed 
by Dr. Blackburn's members, and his congregations received some 
valuable accessions. No effort was made to take advantage of his 
courtesy by organizing a Cumberland Presbyterian church. Then 
they returned to Maryville and held their meeting in the seminary. 
Dr. Anderson not only attended that meeting, but followed them 
to one they held in the country. At the country meeting Don- 
nell' s sermons set the people to shouting, old Presbyterian elders 
being the chief performers. Dr. Anderson caught the fire and 
leaped over rigid boundaries for a moment, but, recollecting him- 
self, he returned to the order required by his church. Thus the 
evangelists went on through all of Bast Tennessee, helping to 
build up the congregations of the revival party, but refusing in all 
cases throughout that tour to organize any Cumberland Presbyte- 
rian church. They held a meeting in a grove near Kingston, 
and there Calhoun was taken sick. Thus ended this campaign. 

The next year an unconverted man by the name of Miller came 
all the way from East Tennessee to Smyrna church, Jackson 
County, Tennessee, to beg Calhoun to make another visit to his 
country. Calhoun gave him a long list of appointments. One 
of these was at the Indian town named Calhoun. Another was at 
the Indian agency, now Athens. In this trip Calhoun met with, 
and preached to, W. C. McKamy, who afterward became a very 

"The Calhoun papers. 



Chapter XVI.] BAST AND WEST TENNESSEE. 145 

efficient minister. All through East Tennessee the solitary evan- 
gelist went, preaching where Miller had previously published his 
appointments. 

The next account we have of preaching in Bast Tennessee by 
our people is in the records of Nashville Presbytery, spring of 
18 18, in which David Foster is* ordered to a regular circuit in Bast 
Tennessee, to spend his whole time there till the next meeting of 
the presbytery. He complied with the order. In 182 1 J. S. Guth- 
rie was sent to the Hiwassee circuit. It is to be regretted that we 
have none of the details of these two tours of evangelism, but 
what we know about the two noble evangelists leaves us no room to 
doubt that their work in Bast Tennessee, as in all the other places 
where they labored, was abundantly fruitful. The language used 
by the presbytery in Foster's and Guthrie's appointment to this 
field would indicate known and established circuits, on which 
former missionaries had labored. It is quite likely that evangelists 
were sent thither the next year after Calhoun's voluntary mission 
(1816), or that such evangelists went voluntarily to that field, but 
if this is so we have no record of the fact. 

J. S. Guthrie was a "rough ashlar," just out of nature's quarry, 
but he had an intellect full of native vigor, and was well versed in 
Scripture and in the doctrines of his church. His work was 
everywhere owned of God, and its results still abide. All the 
numerous anecdotes about Guthrie have something ludicrous 
mixed with an awful solemnity. He was continued in Bast Ten- 
nessee till 1823. 

The same year Robert Baker and Abner Lansden, two men 
like minded, both sweet spirits, were sent to that country. In 
1824 George Donnell and S. M. Aston were also sent thither, and 
for many long years these two noble spirits preached Jesus in that 
field. They were very unlike in many things, yet they were 
deeply devoted to each other. We have a grand biography of 
George Donnell, written by President T. C. Anderson. It would 
be an effort "to paint the rose" should I try to add to that truth- 
ful picture ; but we have no biography of his noble fellow-laborer. 
S. M. Aston was a strong thinker, outspoken, independent, rather 
blunt in his utterances, fearless, and fully persuaded that God was 
10 



146 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period ii. 

with him. While Donnell could make the people weep and win 
the enemies' hearts, Aston could wield strong arguments that would 
convince the gainsayers. Abner W. Lansden was often sent to 
this field. Once S. Y. Thomas was sent to assist in this work. 
All these were then young men and not ordained. The anti- 
revival party of the Presbyterian church mocked at their youth, 
their homespun clothing, and their lack of classical education; yet 
these young men gradually made their way, winning the hearts 
and confidence of even the Old Side party. 

One little sketch, taken from President Anderson's excellent 
biography of George Donnell, is here given to illustrate how these 
1 * boys ' ' overcame prejudice : * 

You may have some idea of our meeting if you will fancy yourself 
looking over the weeping congregation, and beholding here an Old 
School man on his knees bending over four children, all come to years 
of maturity, and all crying for mercy; and there an old gray-headed 
sire, with streaming eyes, in great agony for a whole family of children; 
and yonder a mother in Israel on her knees, bending over a husband 
and four grown children, all unconverted. 

The meeting here alluded to was held in the midst of an Old 
Side community, and these parents were Old Side in their anteced- 
ents. But their prejudices were swept away when all their chil- 
dren found Jesus and salvation. 

Many Presbyterians offered their private dwellings for these 
missionaries to preach in. One case of this kind deserves special 
notice. Thomas Gallagher was an elder in the Presbyterian church, 
and had a son who was a faithful minister in that church. Yet 
he, like many others, offered the use of his house to George Don- 
nell for regular circuit appointments. Four of Mr. Gallagher's 
children afterward claimed George Donnell as their spiritual father. 
Thus the Lord compensated the old elder for his liberality to a 
youthful missionary of a proscribed church. 

There are many accounts of bitter prejudice against the mis- 
sionaries among those belonging to the Old Side party in that day, 
but it is a source of great comfort to know that no such prejudice 
is to be encountered in that country now. In a long preaching 

^ife of George Donnell, pp. 190, 191. 






Chapter XVI.] EAST AND WEST TENNESSEE. 147 

tour among the people of East Tennessee a few years ago, I met 
nothing but kindness and co-operation from the ministry of the 
Presbyterian church. 

The first camp-meeting which our people held in East Tennes- 
see was at Low's Ferry, in 1823. The second was at a spot long 
ago endeared to a thousand hearts. This meeting was held in 
1824, at Concord, in Knox County, by the missionaries, assisted 
by two of the old men who came across the mountains for this pur- 
pose. These old men were Thomas Calhoun and Samuel McSped- 
din, and along with them came Robert Baker. The meeting was 
a great victory, and laid the foundation for several churches. 

In 1826 a curious spectacle greets us. The Lebanon Presbytery 
crossed the mountains and held its meeting in a private house 
belonging to Mr. Cowan, in Grassy Valley, East Tennessee. This 
fact indicates the deep interest felt for that field, and will do so all 
the more when we remember that "horseback" was the only 
mode of travel. 

The next year (1827) Knoxville Presbytery was organized. 
Its original members were George Donnell, S. M. Aston, Abner W. 
Lansden, and William Smith. These four men were our minis- 
ters in that field till about the close of this period, when another 
noble band took their places. 

It ought to bring a blush to the cheeks of East Tennesseins even 
to this day to know how poorly all these early missionaries were 
paid. That George Donnell should be laughed at for his home- 
spun coat, worn out at the elbows, is no credit to our people, 
especially when we remember how unspeakably precious the labors 
of this man of God were. In a MS. history of the Presbyterian 
church in East Tennessee I find the same kind of bitter com- 
plaints. These early preachers were not paid. Great improve- 
ment has been made in this respect, but there is room for yet 
further progress. Nor is East Tennessee the only field needing 
such improvement. 

In Thomas Calhoun's manuscripts are several glimpses at the 
hard life which pioneer preachers encountered in East Tennessee. 
Once in his journey he stayed all night at the house of a preacher. 
There were cracks or openings between the logs of the cabin 



148 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period 11. 

through which the hogs passed in and out with uninterrupted free- 
dom. Often his meals consisted of nothing but hominy. Bridges 
and ferry-boats were a luxury reserved for the great thoroughfares 
or for later times. Swimming rivers was a pastime whose attrac- 
tions would meet small appreciation in our day. 

In Hugh Kirkpatrick's manuscripts he speaks of his feet being 
frost-bitten in one of his preaching tours. His meetings were 
eminently successful. At a camp-meeting held by him in East 
Tennessee there were two hundred conversions. In such a sparse 
population that was a great number. He says of this meeting: 
4 ' We worked up all the material. ' ' 

The country west of the Tennessee River was bought from 
the Indians in 18 19. It was settled very rapidly. Many Cum- 
berland Presbyterians were among its pioneers. An anecdote of 
the Rev. N. I. Hess, a Cumberland Presbyterian minister, who had 
explored all of West Tennessee before it was bought from the 
Indians, is here given. When the friends of the Mobile and Ohio 
Railroad were making a canvass to secure subscriptions to its stock 
they employed two orators, one a distinguished congressman and 
the other Mr. Hess. At each barbecue Hess would tell some inci- 
dent of his early travels and adventures in that very neighborhood 
before the country belonged to white men, and would so adroitly 
use it as to leave the congressman clear behind in popularity. 
The congressman chafed at this and resolved on a remedy. He 
determined to transfer their canvass to the other side of their field, 
where, he supposed, the pioneer tours of Hess had not extended. 
The plan was agreed to and a barbecue was prepared at a big 
spring on the other side of the district. The congressman 
spoke first, and being confident of victory he made a great effort. 
When Hess arose his first sentence was, "Just forty years ago, in 
company with two red men of the forest, I drank water out of that 
spring; " and then, with more than his wonted felicity, he painted 
the wonderful progress and grander destiny of West Tennessee. 

The Nashville Presbytery established circuits in West Tennes- 
see just as soon as that country was settled by white people. The 
first itinerants sent thither were John L. Dillard and James McDon- 
nold, and they began their work in 1820, less than a year after 



Chapter XVI.] EAST AND WEST TENNESSEE. 149 

the purchase of the country from the Indians. In 182 1 Richard 
Beard was sent to the ' ' Forked Deer ' ' circuit. Dr. Beard, to his 
dying day, loved to talk about his experience on this circuit. 
There were no bridges. The country is flat and its water-courses 
spread for miles over the bottoms in the rainy seasons. Some of 
these bottoms are three miles wide, with sloughs at intervals over 
all their extent. When the water covered all the bottom there 
were stakes or blazed trees to indicate where the road was. 
Between these stakes, in water often coming up to the horse's 
sides, the missionary would make his way until a deep slough was 
reached, into which he plunged without warning, and across which 
the horse had to swim. Nor were water-courses the only difficulty. 
There were quicksands. A crust over these would bear a horse 
safely one time, and perhaps the next trip the crust would break, 
and horse and rider would then be fortunate if they ever got out 
alive. Besides all this, a large part of the pioneer population was 
shaking with the ague. The missionaries shared in this affliction, 
but were not thereby kept from filling their appointments. 

Robert Baker, J. S. Guthrie, and J. W. Rea (1823) were also 
sent by the Nashville Presbytery to this land of cypress knees and 
quicksands. Thomas Calhoun made a brief tour through this 
region on his own responsibility, and was so delighted with the 
country that he determined to make it his home. He secured a 
tract of land for this purpose, but finding his congregations arrayed 
against his removal, he sold his West Tennessee land, and never 
again tried to leave his first field of labor. 

Camp-meetings came, of course. Other preachers besides Cal- 
houn bought lands in this splendid cotton delta, and were not dis- 
suaded from settling on them. At Robert Baker's camp-ground, 
Old Shiloh, in Carroll County, David Crockett, the bear killer, would 
sometimes attend the meetings, dressed in homespun shirt and 
without any coat. This camp-ground could itself furnish ample 
material for a volume. It has ever been famous for its precious 
revivals. The name of Robert Baker is a household treasure in all 
West Tennessee. Having known him well in my boyhood, I think 
I could give an epitome of his biography in one sentence: He was 
noted for sweetness of character, holiness of life, and a loving ear- 



150 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period 11. 

nestness in the pulpit which never failed to win the hearts of his 
hearers. 

The Rev. S. Y. Thomas, of precious memory, was another pio- 
neer in this field. At the old Yorkville camp-ground many were 
converted under his ministry, and his name and memory are still 
fresh in. all that country. 

The Rev. William Barnett was among the preachers who took 
up their permanent abode in West Tennessee. He immediately 
established a camp-ground and a church. From Dr. Beard's bio- 
graphical sketches I extract an item about Barnett' s preaching in 
this country. He was at a camp -meeting at McL,emoresville, 
and the sermon here spoken of was on Monday. Dr. Beard was 
present, and gives the description from his own observation. We 
all know that Dr. Beard did not at any time make his statements 
too strong. He says: u On Monday he preached on the subject of 
the judgment. It was a sermon of great power. ... It was terrific. 
The crowd trembled under the influence of its awful and over- 
whelming appeals. Such appeals are seldom heard, and such im- 
pressions are seldom made now. He closed with a great movement 
in the congregation. Many were convicted and hopefully converted 
that evening." By universal consent William Barnett was called 
the Boanerges of the church. 

In 1824 tne order for the organization of the first presbytery in 
that field was issued. It was called Hopewell, and still bears that 
name. Its original members were William Barnett, Richard Beard, 
Samuel Harris, and John C. Smith. The first meeting of this 
presbytery was at McLemoresville, in Carroll County. West Ten- 
nessee soon became one of the great strongholds of the church, 
and remains so to this day. 

What was called Jackson's Purchase in Kentucky now contains 
seven counties of that State. This country and the Forked Deer 
region of Tennessee were opened to white settlers about the same 
time. Cumberland Presbyterians in both Tennessee and Kentucky 
seemed to feel some responsibility for the religious cultivation of 
this field, but it was many years before our people in either of 
these States assumed the sole oversight of this work. Lying in 
Kentucky, it was separated from the circuits of our missionaries in 



Chapter XVI.] EAST AND WEST TENNESSEE. 151 

that State by two great rivers, which flow only twelve miles apart. 
The inconvenience this caused will be better understood when we 
remember that the lower Tennessee River is too wide to swim, 
many horses utterly failing to reach the farther shore when they 
are made to try the dangerous experiment. 

An illustration of the trouble a Kentucky missionary had on 
account of these rivers is here recorded. The Rev. B. H. Pierson, 
D. D. , now of Arkansas, was one of the pioneer preachers in this 
field. He is now (1886) in his eighty-third year. He says: * 

We traveled with but little if any remuneration. . . . My circuit 
was arranged so that I had to ferry the Cumberland four times each 
round. Once I came to the bank of this stream without a cent. How 
I would get over the river I knew not; but having to call on a brother 
who lived close to the ferry, when I started from his house he, without 
knowing the state of my finances, handed me a "bit" — twelve and a 
half cents — remarking, "This will pay your ferriage." 

Still there were other ferriages to be paid, but the preacher went 
on his way. He says: "I had the altar and the wood, but where 
was the sacrifice ? ' ' God provided it. He preached that day, and 
after the benediction was pronounced, and he was ready to set out 
for the next ferry, a lady in shaking hands with him left a whole 
dollar in his hands. With overflowing thankfulness of heart the 
preacher went on his way, with money enough in his pocket to 
pay eight ferriages. This was the amount received for a whole 
year's labor. 

Dr. Pierson says there were no meeting-houses in this region at 
that day. All the preaching was done in private houses, or out 
under the trees. He speaks of a two days' meeting in a private 
house where there were seventeen conversions. In this year's work 
in this new field Mr. Pierson had for his associate in missionary 
labor the Rev. Adlai Boyd, of Kentucky. 

I have been able to secure only very meager accounts of the 
church's early work in Jackson's Purchase. This mention of Dr. 
Pierson' s experience will have to suffice for a sample, and it is 
doubtless a fair sample of what all our first missionaries in that 
field could relate, were they still living. 

z Dr. Crisman's " Our Old Men," p. 76. 



152 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period n. 

The IyOgan Presbytery, when its territory included what are now 
five States, could not cultivate all its field. It sent men to Indiana, 
Illinois, Ohio, and Missouri, when, if a selfish localism had gov- 
erned it, it might have employed every preacher it had in its home 
field. Yet that noble presbytery, though it was sending so many 
missionaries to the West, still struggled to build up the church in 
Kentucky. The whole State was divided first into two districts, 
and later into four. In each of these districts evangelists preached 
every day in the week. The biography of those evangelists would 
include the whole history of our church. Chapman, Harris, Hun- 
ter, lyowry, Bryan, Knight, Delany, Johnson, Philip McDonnold, 
John and William Barnett, Mclyin, McDowell, Lynn, and many 
others, were on the roll of evangelists sent out in that day. Stir- 
ring accounts of their meetings come to us in great numbers. 

In the later years of this second period the number of noble 
workers in our Kentucky pulpits grew to such proportions as to 
render it impracticable to give special individual descriptions. 
Only sample incidents can be indulged. 

The Rev. Matthew Houston Bone, began his career in Ken- 
tucky. At one camp-meeting where he expected to have the 
assistance of several older preachers, he being then only a licen- 
tiate, he found himself to be the only preacher in attendance. He 
spent nearly all the first night in prayer. His soul was distressed 
not only about the overwhelming responsibility which had fallen 
upon him, but he could decide on no text for the morrow's sermon. 
However, a text on which he had no sermon was impressed on his 
mind, and he accepted it as from the Lord. He preached next day 
from this -text with wonderful freedom and power. The whole vast 
audience was deeply moved, and a work of grace began which re- 
sulted in a great number of conversions. 

( ( Scotch ' ' Smith and Dr. Cossitt both entered the ministry in 
our Kentucky pulpits during this period. One was a camp-meet- 
ing preacher, the other made his grandest record in connection 
with our educational enterprises. 

The incident in the life of Mr. Bone just cited, is characteristic 
of our early preachers. They believed not only that God guided 
them in the selection of their texts, but they earnestly believed 



Chapter XVI.] EAST AND WEST TENNESSEE. I53 

that on some occasions he gave the whole sermon as well as the 
text. An incident in point is given from the autobiography of the 
Rev. H. A. Hunter. It was at a camp-meeting at Mt. Moriah, near 
Russellville, Kentucky. Hunter was to preach, but could think 
of no suitable text or sermon. He was just beginning his minis- 
try, and had but few ready-made sermons. In those days the senior 
minister who managed such matters often issued his orders to the 
young preacher only a short time before he required him to begin 
his sermon. Hunter, receiving orders thus, fled in dismay to the 
woods. Falling prostrate there he poured out his complaints to 
the Lord. There were only a few moments for prayer. The time 
to preach came, but there was no light, no text, no sermon. He 
rose and went to the pulpit. They sang a hymn, and while they 
sang, text and sermon too were impressed on the young preacher's 
mind. He rose and read, ' ' Ye have said it is a vain thing to serve 
God." He testifies that each successive sentence came like an in- 
spiration, until, the sermon over, he "called for mourners," and 
more came than could find room to kneel. That was at the nine 
o'clock morning service. The usual second sermon had to be 
omitted, and all the rest of that day was spent instructing and 
praying for anxious souls. Many were made glad in Jesus that 
day. Many cases in which the Holy Spirit did undoubtedly guide 
the minister in his arguments have occurred among the truly con- 
secrated preachers of the Cross in all churches and all ages. These 
cases have by no means been confined to ignorant and visionary 
men ; but in instances coming within my own observation, men of 
the profoundest scholarship and severest habits of study have been 
led out beyond all their accustomed fields of research into argu- 
ments and illustrations not their own — arguments whose divine 
origin was abundantly vindicated afterward when the preacher dis- 
covered their exact fitness to a state of things of which he was pro- 
foundly ignorant at the time he delivered the sermon. The writer, 
in his own experience, has seen and felt and known enough of this 
truth fully to convince him of the fact of the Holy Spirit's presence 
and power in such cases. 

The Rev. G. W. Reynolds, of Berdan, Illinois, describes a Ken- 
tucky camp-meeting in which the Rev. Henry F. Delany set forth 



154 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period n. 

in a sermon the contrast between the eternal future destiny of the 
saved and the lost. The two worlds were so vividly painted that 
they seemed to be right before the people. An awful sense of 
their reality filled all hearts. The sermon closed, and the preacher 
took his seat without ' ' calling for mourners ' ' or asking any one to 
conclude the services. In silence and tears all sat for ten minutes, 
when M. H. Bone rose to his feet and without uttering a word 
walked slowly down from the pulpit and ont to the woods. The 
congregation followed his example. In the woods, that universal 
resort for private prayer in those days, more than a thousand people 
were soon prostrate before God. No dinner nor supper was eaten 
that day. At night the praying multitude gathered at the place of 
public worship, and the Holy Spirit was poured out in convert- 
ing power to the salvation of great numbers. Mr. Reynolds thinks 
that this was the meeting which the Rev. Dr. Samuel Miller 
attended when he got those impressions about Mr. Delany's 
preaching which he described in the letter spoken of in a previous 
chapter. 

Mr. McGready's field of labor was in Logan County, Kentucky, 
and the history of the origin of the Cumberland Presbyterian 
church in all the older portions of the State belongs to the first 
period of this history. Two things conspired to prevent our 
church from gaining that pre-eminence in this field which seemed 
at first to be its heritage. One was the bitterness of the anti- 
revival Presbyterians, and the other was the immense emigration 
of Kentuckians to the new territories. In most cases these emi- 
grants sold their Kentucky lands to Baptists from Virginia. The 
Cumberland Presbyterians had no churches in Virginia, from which 
State nearly all these land buyers came. Still the church grew in 
Kentucky. Before the close of this second period, Cumberland 
Presbyterians had three strong presbyteries in this State, all re- 
markably like their mother — old Logan Presbytery. They all 
held special fast-days to pray for more ministers to be called into 
the great harvest, and sent many of these ministers, when they 
were called, to labor among the destitute in the new countries. 
They also tried, so far as they could by the itinerant system, sup- 
plemented by camp-meetings, to cultivate their home field. 



Chapter XVII.] ALABAMA. 155 



CHAPTER XVII 



PLANTING CHURCHES IN ALABAMA. 

Now the training, strange and lowly, 

Unexplained and tedious now; 
Afterward the service holy, 

And the Master's "Enter thou." 

—F. R. H. 

A GLANCE at the history of Alabama is necessary to a cor- 
rect understanding of the church's work in that State. 
The country was all claimed by Georgia under its original charter 
from England. Several efforts were made by Georgia to place 
colonies on this soil, but as the whole land was in the hands of 
Indians and Spaniards, who also claimed the country, it generally 
cost the Georgians their lives to settle there. Those who escaped 
did so by promising allegiance to the Indians or the Spaniards. 

Then the United States bought Georgia's claim to this country, 
but Spaniards and Indians still had not only their claims, but also 
what is called "nine points in the law" — possession. A territorial 
government was however established, and all the country was called 
Mississippi, and continued to be so designated till 181 7. 

In 1805 the Indian claim to a small portion of what is now 
Madison County, Alabama, was purchased, and settlements were 
established and the Indians withdrawn in less than two years after- 
ward. In 18 1 3 the long- promised, long-delayed evacuation of 
South Alabama by the Spanish was accomplished. In 18 14 the 
Creek claim to that portion of Alabama was extinguished, but hos- 
tile Creeks still roamed over it and made it unsafe for Americans. 

In 18 1 6 the country east of Cotton Gin Port, on the Tombigbee 
River, was bought from the Chickasaw Indians. In 181 7 the first 
Territorial legislature assembled, Alabama being then severed from 
Mississippi. In that legislature there was but one senator. Some 
of the counties represented had in their elections cast but ten votes. 



156 Cumberland Presbyterian History [Period ii. 

There were just three settlements of Americans in the Territory — 
one centering at Mobile, one at Huntsville, and one on the Tom- 
bigbee River. There were hostile Creek Indians, and a Creek war 
on Alabama soil as late as 1836. The way to the American settle- 
ments in South Alabama was open and free from danger only by 
the sea, though Georgians and Carolinians sometimes took their 
chances and traveled along the land route from the east. Travel 
from Tennessee and Kentucky was sometimes accomplished on 
rafts down the Tombigbee, but there was very little emigration by 
that dangerous route. 

When the country about Huntsville was first settled, and before 
the organization of the Cumberland Presbyterian church, "the 
council" sent Robert Bell to the new settlements around Hunt's 
Spring. The next year, 1808, the council sent Thomas Calhoun 
to the same field, and he preached in Hunt's house before that 
house was finished. The next year (1809) the council sent Robert 
Donnell to that field, and kept him there till the new denomination 
was organized. It was a favorite field with him all his life. His 
ashes rest in North Alabama. Our old churches all over that coun- 
try were planted by him. 

In 181 7 a family that had just arrived from South Carolina vis- 
ited Donnell' s camp-meeting at the Meridian church, and several 
of its members were converted. One of these was a boy seventeen 
years old, who from that day to this has been helping to preach 
Jesus to the people of North Alabama. His name is A. J. Steele. 
John Carnahan 1 and he rode the circuit together, in 1819, through 
North Alabama, attending all of Donnell' s camp-meetings. A 
little later John Morgan and Albert Gibson joined the band of 
Alabama preachers. Then came other noble laborers, and North 
Alabama bloomed like the garden of the Lord. 

In John Morgan's diary he states that the distance around his 
circuit was four hundred miles. From Steele's autobiography 
(MS.) we learn that three new camp-grounds were established on 
his circuit the first year. This was everywhere the order of 
things. The young men, as soon as they were received as candi- 

1 Carnahan's home was then in Arkansas, but he was under the orders of Elk 
Presbytery. 



Chapter XVII.] ALABAMA. 157 

dates, were sent out as evangelists on circuits; and they went, too, 
pay or no pay. The old men attended the camp-meetings, and 
occasionally made tours of evangelism, but sustained also, in some 
cases, the nominal relation of pastor to some congregations. This 
relation, in many cases, was so loose, that any preacher of the church 
living within reach of a congregation which had one of these 
nominal pastors might, without asking the pastor's or the session's 
consent, send an appointment for regular monthly preaching on 
any unoccupied Sabbath. While all the work of the church was 
devoted to planting congregations, the absurdity of such Presbyte- 
rianism was not keenly felt. There came a time, however, when 
it sent a wail of woe throughout the denomination. 

The Elk Presbytery, in 1820, ordered two of its members to 
establish a circuit in South Alabama, but for satisfactory reasons 
they both failed to comply. In 182 1 the General Synod appointed 
certain preachers to go to South Alabama and organize a presby- 
tery. There were candidates for the ministry who wanted to settle 
in that field, and it was believed that a presbytery might soon 
secure a local supply of ministers; but this attempt to form a pres- 
bytery composed entirely of non-resident ministers was a failure. 
A quorum never met. This, as will be seen elsewhere, was not 
the only instance in which the church sent non-residents to such a 
work. 

In 1 81 7, just one year from the time the country east of Cotton 
Gin Port was purchased from the Indians, we find Cumberland 
Presbyterian pioneers from that region petitioning Elk Presbytery 
to send them a preacher. The presbytery requested Robert Don- 
nell to go to their relief, but for satisfactory reasons he failed to do 
so. The next year (1818) the ladies' missionary board of Elk 
Presbytery sent Samuel King and William Moore to that field, and 
to a portion of the Indian country west of the Tombigbee. From 
the autobiography of the Rev. R. D. King (son of the Rev. Samuel 
King), there are indications that these two men labored more 
among the Indians than among the white emigrants; but they 
reported at the next meeting of presbytery that they had complied 
with the instructions of the missionary board. 

The manuscript autobiography of the Rev. R. D. King says: 



158 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period 11. 

In April, 182 1, I was ordered by the presbytery to form a circuit on 
the south side of Tennessee River, in the counties of Morgan, Law- 
rence, and Franklin, in Alabama. I had to hunt my own preaching 
places, and make my own appointments. The country was all newly 
settled, having been lately purchased from the Indians. Here I found 
many good Cumberland Presbyterians. I formed a circuit of four 
weeks' extent, with regular daily appointments. I succeeded in getting 
up three camp-meetings, one in Morgan County (then Cataco County). 
Here I was assisted by the Rev. James Stewart, the Rev. James Moore, 
and my father. . . . The results of those three camp-meetings were qne 
hundred and fifty professions. Besides these, there were a good many 
professions at my circuit appointments. I never failed to reach my 
appointments. I received in compensation from the people sixty dol- 
lars. During all this time I was only a candidate. 

In the fall of 182 1 Elk Presbytery ordered R. D. King, then a 
licentiate, and Daniel Patton, then a candidate, to go to South Ala- 
bama and form a circuit. They began their work on the head 
waters of the Black Warrior. The Pleasant Valley, Jones Valley, 
and farther south to Cahawba were their fields of action. King's 
manuscript says: 

South Alabama was newly settled, mainly with people from the 
Carolinas and Georgia. They had never seen a Cumberland Presbyte- 
rian before our visit. What they had heard of us was from our ene- 
mies; so we had to fight our way against prejudice and opposition. 
We traveled separately, and never failed, either of us, to reach our 
appointments. We often had to swim the rivers. We preached every 
day. God blessed our labors, We gathered societies under a written 
compact to organize regular congregations as soon as an ordained min- 
ister could be had for the purpose. This was the beginning of the 
church in South Alabama. On our way to the meeting of presbytery 
in the spring we swam five streams in one day. Hundreds of persons 
petitioned for us to be sent back. For this winter tour I received 
nothing. 

These evangelists were not sent back, however, but sent to 
other destitute fields, and for a little season the seed planted in 
South Alabama was left to grow without cultivation or to perish. 

The Tombigbee Presbytery, organized in 1823, extended partly 
into Alabama: but the first successful effort to form a presbytery in 
the southern portion of the State was made in 1824. The manner 
in which the new presbytery was organized is typical. The Rev. 



Chapter XVII.] ALABAMA. I59 

Benjamin Lockhart and two licensed preachers had settled in that 
portion of the State. The Rev. William Moore declared himself 
ready to move to South Alabama for the sake of the church. The 
Tennessee Presbytery, which was cut off of the Elk Presbytery in 
182 1, resolved to hold an intermediate session in South Alabama 
for the purpose of ordaining the two licensed preachers who had 
settled there, and in this way to provide a quorum for the organi- 
zation of Alabama Presbytery. All this was in obedience to an 
order of synod. It was a long journey for a whole presbytery to 
make, but men did not shrink from such journeys in those days. 
Hostile Indians roamed between Tennessee Presbytery and South 
Alabama, but a quorum was present at the appointed time. At 
this meeting the presbytery ordained John Williams and James W. 
Dickey, the two licentiates. William Moore attended, and he and 
Benjamin Lockhart, together with the two newly-ordained minis- 
ters, constituted the Alabama Presbytery, and made that field their 
permanent home. 

This presbytery had a strange, hard field. With hostile Indians 
near at hand ; with a population mainly from States where Cumber- 
land Presbyterians were unknown; with one of its members already 
past the period of life for much active labor; with the bitterest mis- 
representations, both of its doctrines and its practices, actively cir- 
culated; with a location isolated from all the rest of the church: 
it is not strange that this presbytery did not grow as did some 
others. 

It has been my aim to avoid the discussion of all those preju- 
dices which once embittered the spirit of many in the Presbyterian 
church ; but the history of the early struggles of our own church 
absolutely requires some mention of these things. An incident 
taken from the manuscript autobiography of the Rev. R. D. King 
will suffice to illustrate the state of things in South Alabama when 
Cumberland Presbyterians began their work in that field. The 
State legislature then met at Cahawba, and it was in session while 
King was there. Several of its members knew King, and invited 
him to preach for them, which he did. As there was no house of 
worship in the place, the three denominations of the town each 
had procured the use of the State-house for one Sabbath per month. 



160 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period n. 

This left one Sabbath unoccupied. By a formal and official resolu- 
tion the legislature invited King to take possession of the house 
for that vacant Sabbath. He accepted their invitation, and left an 
appointment. When the time for his appointment arrived, and he 
was on his way to the place of preaching, the resident minister of 
the Presbyterian church came driving rapidly past him in his 
buggy. When King, who was walking, entered the hall, which 
was then thronged with people, this Presbyterian preacher, whose 
name was Sloss, was up lining out a hymn. After song and 
prayer, Mr. Sloss announced a text and proceeded to preach. The 
sergeant-at-arms of the legislature came to King and said: "Sir, 
with your permission, I will put him out." King, however, 
begged him not to interfere. Mr. Sloss gave a horrid caricature 
of the doctrines, the practices, and the ignorance of the Cumber- 
land Presbyterians, and warned everybody against having any 
thing to do with them. After the benediction, King announced 
preaching for the afternoon. When the hour arrived, he had a 
crowded hall, and there was a solemn and precious meeting with- 
out the least allusion to Mr. Sloss or his caricature of our people. 
When Mr. Sloss came to his own appointment the next Sabbath, 
his wife was his only auditor. He tried one more time to fill his 
regular day, and again his wife was his only hearer, the members 
of his own church reprobating his conduct as much as others. 
Then he closed out his work in Cahawba. 

The Rev. Gibson W. Murray, whose parents were South Caro- 
lina Presbyterians, was brought in early life to South Alabama. 
While visiting relatives near Ely ton, this young man attended the 
first Cumberland Presbyterian camp-meeting he had ever seen. It 
was all new and strange to him, and the newest and strangest thing 
of it all was the preaching. He says in his manuscript autobiog- 
raphy, which is before me, that the preaching he had been used to 
from childhood was about the decrees, about the absolute certainty 
of all the elect being saved, and that all this had never in any way 
disturbed his conscience. He felt that nothing he could do would 
in anywise change his predetermined destiny. The religion upon 
which he had been brought up consisted in keeping the Sabbath 
sacred, and in being whipped on Monday for any failure in his cat- 



Chapter XVII.] ALABAMA. l6l 

echism lesson the day before. But this camp-meeting opened up a 
new world to him. A preacher of splendid figure and lovely coun- 
tenance rose in the stand, and with a voice which won its way right 
into his heart, began to discuss the text, "What is truth? " This 
preacher was the Rev. William Moore; and this remarkable sermon, 
though it continued four hours, Mr. Murray says, held the whole 
congregation spell-bound to the last, so that they were sorry when 
it ended. 

In that sermon Mr. Moore stated that there were so many mis- 
representations abroad as to what his church believed, and his 
denomination as yet had so few books, that he felt it to be his duty 
to give, that day, a synopsis of the doctrines which his people held 
as the system of Bible truth. Mr. Murray says that from that day 
on he was a believer in the Cumberland Presbyterian system. He 
went home and re-preached Mr. Moore's sermon to his father's 
family, and the result was that the whole family joined the Cum- 
berland Presbyterian church. Mr. Murray had impressions from 
that sermon which he never shook off. His own heart was laid bare 
to his gaze; his own responsibility was revealed, and he found no 
rest until he cast himself irrevocably upon the crucified Redeemer. 
He immediately began to plead with sinners to flee from the wrath 
to come, and spent the remainder of a long life in work for Jesus. 

The Alabama Presbytery had eleven candidates for the ministry 
in five years. Only one of the eleven ever made a preacher. Five 
of these candidates were dropped from the roll at one session of the 
presbytery. This, like all the other presbyteries of this period, 
had pastorates only in name, for all its so-called pastors were really 
evangelists. After several years the Rev. William Moore took reg- 
ular pastoral charge of one of its churches. The Rev. J. S. Guth- 
rie came into the presbytery at an early day, and made a live evan- 
gelist of the original type. He became an efficient instrument in 
carrying the gospel into many destitute places, and in planting 
new congregations. 

South Alabama is one of the most beautiful countries in the 
world. In i860 I was traveling among its churches, and wrote 
some sketches, historical and descriptive, from which I here make 
a few extracts: 
11 



1 62 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period 11. 

"In company with the Rev. Wiley Burgess I visited the site 
where long ago our people had a camp-ground. ' Fallen, fallen, a 
silent heap of ruins now!' Here I saw the old Bible which once 
belonged to Canaan pulpit. On a fly-leaf were the notes of a ser- 
mon preached at the opening of presbytery by J. S. Guthrie long 
ago." At Canton Bend, in the house of the Rev. J. C. Weir, this 
was written: "Mr. Weir is one of our pioneers in this field, He 
has held on to his post for more than thirty years, begging all the 
time for more men, more help. Alabama has not fallen below the 
third State in rank for contributions to our missions, yet she has 
never received any aid from our missionary board. It is a newer 
State than either Ohio or Illinois, but the general church gives no 
help to this frontier field. At Pleasant Hill, Alabama, one of our 
oldest ministers sleeps — the Rev. William Moore. I often hear 
him mentioned in the South. His work here was for many years 
a difficult one. Sometimes the wicked threatened to kill him. 
Lawlessness and violence were quite common in this town at that 
early day, and the minister of Jesus was looked upon as a danger- 
ous intruder." Often while Mr. Moore was engaged in family 
prayers, sons of Belial would stand outside mocking and making 
disturbance. Meeting no check in their lawlessness they were 
encouraged to continue it, and finally they fired a whole volley of 
balls and shots through the window into the room where the family 
were kneeling in prayer. Two of the household were wounded, 
and the indignation of all the better class of settlers was so aroused 
that they organized a vigilance committee, and gave notice to the 
leaders among these desperadoes that the very next time Mr. Moore 
was molested every one of these leaders would be hanged. Mr. 
Moore had quiet after that. 

There are names of other ministers now gone to rest that are 
uttered amid grateful tears in these Alabama homes. Old men, 
in the shady portico, talk while the winds bring spices from the 
groves of magnolias: and in their talks their voices grow husky, 
and their eyes glisten with tears while they speak of Wayman 
Adair. Adair was the only one of the first eleven candidates for 
the ministry in that field who persevered in the work. 

South Alabama has from the first been a field beset with trials 



Chapter XVII.] ALABAMA. 163 

to our preachers. The early developed tendency to gather all the 
white people into towns, leaving the rural districts to immense cot- 
ton plantations cultivated by negroes, was the death of most of our 
rural churches throughout the beautiful land of the magnolia and 
the cape jessamine. A people relying on camp-meetings and circuit 
riders found their occupation gone when there was no place to 
preach in except towns. 



164 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period 11. 



CHAPTER XVIII 



PLANTING CHURCHES IN INDIANA AND ILLINOIS. 

Now the long and toilsome duty, 

Stone by stone to carve and bring, 
Afterward the perfect beauty 

Of the palace of the King. 

—F. R. H. 

THE Rev. William Harris was the first Cumberland Presby- 
terian preacher to visit Indiana. In a letter to him, written 
by Mrs. Lindsey, of Indiana, in June, 1812, she says: "We have 
had but one sermon since your visit to this country. One Sabbath 
after another comes, but all is silent — the glad news of salvation is 
never heard." 1 The date of the visit by Harris alluded to in this 
letter can be only proximately determined. As Mrs. Lindsey 
moved to Indiana in 1810, and the visit was prior to 1812, we may 
fix its date as probably in 181 1. Her pleadings finally induced 
Harris, accompanied by Alexander Chapman, to make a second 
preaching tour in that country. The date of this second visit is 
also uncertain, but it preceded the tour which Chapman and Barnett 
made by order of Logan Presbytery in 18 17. 

What the Methodists called circuits, Logan Presbytery called 
districts; and what the Methodists called circuit riders, Logan Pres- 
bytery called missionaries. Nowhere in the Minutes of the early 
meetings of Logan Presbytery have I found the missionary called a 
circuit rider, though he had regular rounds of " appointments " like 
a Methodist itinerant. One of the districts of Logan Presbytery 
at first took in several counties of Kentucky 2 along with all of 
Indiana; but when ministers multiplied Indiana became a separate 
district. 

During Harris's tour through Indiana the claims, wants, and 
earnest pleadings of those pioneers made a deep impression on his 

1 Beard's Harris, p. 129. 2 H. A. Hunter's MSS. 



Chapter XVIII.] INDIANA AND lUJNOIS. 165 

heart. At the next meeting of his presbytery he preached a ser- 
mon on the need of more laborers. In this sermon he gave a 
description of the West and its wants. His feelings became so 
deep that he could not talk, and, sinking down in overwhelming 
emotion, he wept and prayed, but could not finish his sermon. 
Several preachers date their call to the work of the ministry from 
that hour and that sermon, and several of these made that same 
western country their life-time field of labor. 

The presbytery named one of its districts Wabash and one 
Indiana, and sent missionaries to both every year. The older 
preachers generally attended the camp-meetings in Indiana. There 
is something sublime in the struggles of Logan Presbytery to sup- 
ply all this vast field with the gospel. As the number of its min- 
isters was wholly inadequate to meet the ever-increasing demand 
for the grand work, a fast-day was appointed for special prayer to 
God for more called laborers. At the very next meeting of the 
presbytery David Lowry, Aaron Shelby, William McCord, and 
William Henry were received as candidates, and before another 
year four others were received — H. A. Hunter, W. M. Hamilton, 
A. Downey, and Thomas Campbell. Six of these men were, at one 
time or another, sent to the vast districts of Wabash and Indiana. 
At subsequent meetings, within a few months, another long list of 
names was added to Logan Presbytery's roll of preachers, among 
others Henry F. Delany and Joel Knight. These men, along with 
others, helped to plant the churches in Indiana and Illinois. 

When Anderson Presbytery was organized Indiana and Illinois 
were included in its bounds. Before this Logan Presbytery ha4 
extended over this vast field. The first mention of any repre- 
sentatives in Logan Presbytery from the churches in either of these 
States is found in the Minutes of the fall meeting of 1819. The 
Black River congregation of Indiana and the Seven Mile Prairie 
congregation in Illinois both had representatives in that meeting. 
The Rev. Dr. Darby and the Rev. J. E. Jenkins in their pamphlet 
history of our church in southern Indiana give the probable order 
of date for our first churches there as follows: Mt. Zion, McAlisters, 
Shiloh, Milburns, White Oak Springs, Lester's, Osborne's, Mt. 
Pleasant. 



i66 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period it. 

The manuscripts of the Rev. H. A. Hunter give some touching 
accounts of the hardships which the first missionaries in the Indiana 
district endured in their winter tours. To swim rivers in midwinter 
in such a climate as that of Indiana was a trial to Southern men 
even when they were of that hardy type which was so common in 
those early times. Over half the first preachers of Indiana were 
natives of Tennessee, where the winters are mild. Others were 
Kentuckians, and one was from South Carolina. None of these 
men ever missed an appointment. If there was any exception, 
sickness and not the weather or the hardships was the cause. 

These early preachers had other things besides weather to try 
their courage. Their work in this field began before Indiana was 
a State, and before Indian troubles ceased to fill the land with mid- 
night alarms. The great Indian war, in which General Harrison 
led the American troops to victory on Indiana soil, did not end 
until after Cumberland Presbyterian pioneers began their work for 
Jesus on that same soil. Harrison's victories live in the annals of 
blood; the victories won by Harris and Chapman live in the annals 
of eternal life. 

The following account of the organization of Mt. Zion congre- 
gation is from the historical pamphlet already mentioned: 

This congregation was organized by the Rev. William Barnett in 
August, 1817, at a Methodist place of worship known as Shiloh, in 
Gibson County. The elders were James Knowles, Samuel Montgom- 
ery, and Alexander Johnson, the two former having been elders in the 
Presbyterian church. It is probable that this was the first Cumberland 
Presbyterian congregation in the State. At first the name of the con- 
gregation was Hopewell, and the members were accustomed to worship 
and hold their camp-meetings at the same place with the Methodists. 
Thus two camp-meetings were held each year on the same spot con- 
jointly for a number of years. Finally, under circumstances which 
need not now be mentioned, the two meetings having been announced 
to take place at the same time, the Cumberland Presbyterians with- 
drew, and, with the aid of many sympathizers in the community, estab- 
lished a camp-ground one half mile from Shiloh, and held their meet- 
ing at the appointed time. When Messrs. Downey, Lynn, Hunter, and 
others were assembled at the time of meeting, the question arose as to 
what name the new place of worship should bear. Father Downey 
said: "Call it Mt. Zion, for it shall never be removed." [Ps. cxxv. i.j 






Chapter XVIII.] INDIANA AND IlXINOIS. 167 

There are other historic churches in Indiana, but the interest- 
ing details of their history must be left for some larger book, or 
for some local State history of our people. The Evansville and 
Newburg congregations belong to later periods, and deserve more 
space than I can give them. The former is now the largest church 
in our denomination. 

Two incidents of the early Indiana camp - meetings are here 
given on the authority of the Rev. H. A. Hunter, who witnessed 
them. They are clipped from Dr. Darby's pamphlet: 

A man of considerable prominence in the estimation of some, par- 
ticularly of himself, who claimed to be a Universalist, heard a sermon 
on Monday of the meeting, and became the subject of such conviction 
that with many others he came to the altar for prayer. The preacher 
went to him and endeavored to encourage him to believe and be saved. 

"O Mr. ," said he, "I can believe that Christ died for and will save 

the whole world, but I am such a sinner I fear he will not save me." 

At a camp-meeting near Mr. Lester's, in Daviess County, a young 
man and his bride were in attendance. The lady became exceedinglv 
concerned about her soul, and came forward for the prayers of the 
church. Being deeply affected, her weeping and praying excited the 
sympathy of her husband, who came to her, not to encourage her in 
her purpose, but to oppose it. He bade her arise and go out of the 
congregation. She entreated him to stay with her, saying, "Let us go 
together to heaven." Becoming enraged, he refused his assent to her 
course, and threatened to leave her there if she did not come out. 
Then throwing her arms around his neck, she exclaimed: "I will go 
with you, my husband, if we go to hell." They left the congregation, 
and went home together. They were never in another congregation 
alive, but within a few weeks were both dead. 

It is to be regretted that Mr. Hunter did not leave us accounts 
of many other thrilling camp-meeting incidents witnessed by him 
not only in Indiana but in other States. Such incidents show that 
the preaching of these Western missionaries produced results simi- 
lar to those seen under the ministry of McGready and others at the 
beginning of the great revival in Kentucky and Tennessee. There 
are traditions of a wonderful character .about Hunter's camp-meet- 
ings. Interesting details of Chapman's work in Indiana are given 
in Dr. Bird's Life of Chapman, a book that all Cumberland Pres- 
byterians ought to read. The following account of a camp-meeting 



168 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period ii. 

held by Chapman and others just on the borders of the white set- 
tlements, and near to the Indians, is given by the Rev. William 
Lynn: 

They commenced their operations. The Lord was present, and 
worked with power. Many fell to the ground under the power of the 
gospel. Some lay helpless for a long time, which caused a great talk 
among the people. There was a very strong, rough-looking man who 
said they could not make him fall. The meeting passed on till Mon- 
day. Mr. Chapman preached, and just as he commenced his discourse 
he noticed this man come into the edge of the congregation and stop 
and look at him very steadily. Directly the man drew nearer the stand, 
and as Mr. Chapman advanced in his sermon the man came still nearer, 
and about the close of the discourse he was trembling in every joint. 
Discovering that he had lost the use of his limbs, and the people refus- 
ing to carry him away, he grasped a small tree that stood near, and 
cried out, "I won't fall, I won't," still hugging the tree; but at last he 
fell full length on the ground before the stand. 

This falling helpless continued to mark the work of the great 
revival till about the year 1840. It was common at most of the 
camp-meetings where the fathers of our church preached. It dis- 
appeared gradually as the power of the great revival waned and 
the men of 1800 passed away. 

Illinois was not a State till 1818, but daring emigrants settled 
there before the French and Indian titles to that country were 
extinguished. The father of John Crawford moved to Illinois in 
1808 and settled in sight of a camp of Indian hunters. This was 
the first family connected with our history that became settlers in 
this territory. Crawford's parents were anti-revival Presbyterians, 
but their children heard the revival preachers in Kentucky and all 
sooner or later became Cumberland Presbyterians. John Crawford 
was one of the pioneer preachers of our church in that State. He 
lived to a good old age and left a treasure in the form of a brief 
manuscript autobiography which is now before me. The first ser- 
mon in this State by a Cumberland Presbyterian minister was 
preached in 181 5, near Golqonda, by the Rev. John Barnett, at the 
house of Mr. Glass, whose children were Cumberland Presbyte- 
rians. These children were the first members of this church in 
that territory. 



Chapter XVIII.] INDIANA AND ILLINOIS. 169 

In Mr. Crawford's autobiography lie says in reference to the 
early experience of his family in Illinois: "We were in constant 
fear of Indians, beasts of the forest, and river desperadoes." He 
gives an interesting picture of the impressions produced on a youth- 
ful mind by prejudice. He says he heard so much about the hor- 
rible Cumberland Presbyterians that he concluded there must be 
something of demoniacal nature and power in them. Finally he 
had an opportunity to hear one of them preach. He went on foot 
twelve miles to see and hear the dangerous preacher. He studied 
the preacher's looks, but saw no ferocious beast but a kindly looking 
human face. He watched his movements but saw neither the spring 
of a tiger nor the antics of a monkey. When the sermon began he 
studied every word, but he then found something else to do besides 
studying the preacher. His own life began to stand out before 
him all covered with sin. His own heart began to be revealed to 
him as he had never seen it before. His own startling relations to 
God and eternity swallowed up his thoughts till all other things 
were utterly forgotten. As his smitten soul found no relief that 
day, and as there was no other appointment for the strange preacher 
in the neighborhood, Mr. Crawford went twenty miles on foot to a 
camp-meeting in Kentucky, but he found no relief there. Then 
these dangerous strangers came again to Illinois, and under their 
ministry Mr. Crawford found Him of whom Moses and the proph- 
ets did write, and from that day onward he proclaimed the truth of 
the gospel and pointed the people of Illinois to the Savior. 

There were many similar instances of early prejudice and its 
cure. Although the one here added was not located in Illinois it 
took place under the ministry of the same men who participated 
in the Crawford incidents. A young lady who was reared by 
Roman Catholic parents came from her home in the city of New 
York on a visit to relatives in Kentucky. A Cumberland Presby- 
terian camp-meeting was held in 'the neighborhood. Like young 
Crawford, her information about this church led her to expect 
something unutterably monstrous at one of its camp-meetings. 
She resolved, however, come what might, to see for herself. She 
attended the meeting and then wrote an account of it to her 
mother. After telling about the antecedents of the case, she says: 



170 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period 11. 

I just went to see and be seen and, mother, I did both as never I 
did before. I saw, not some inhuman monster in the shape of a 
preacher, but my own lost, ruined self, stripped of all my hollow pre- 
tenses, guilty, and naked, and condemned before God. I saw beneath 
me eternal perdition and my poor soul about to plunge into its fathom- 
less depths. I was seen, too, in all my guilt by the piercing eye of 
God. I felt its withering gaze and shrieked with condemnation while 
I felt it. Then, mother, I saw the most glorious sight any poor, lost 
sinner ever gazed upon. I saw the Son of God bearing my sins on the 
cross. I saw my Savior reconciling me to God's law and God's king- 
dom. O mother, I know you will be angry, but I must tell you all. I, 
even I, am now a happy member of the Cumberland Presbyterian 
church; and I thank God that I ever heard one of their faithful, hon- 
est, scriptural, and fearless sermons. Mother, they are God's people. 

John Crawford, from Illinois, and the Roman Catholic woman, 
from New York, have gone home now, whither their spiritual 
guides preceded them. They see and are seen without any obscur- 
ing veil to shut out part of the glories; and among the things 
there to be seen are a great company of redeemed ones from the 
early camp-meetings of the Cumberland Presbyterians. 

After John Crawford's trip to Kentucky an incident occurred 
which deserves a place here. Notwithstanding the bitter preju- 
dices which Mr. Crawford's parents had against the Cumberland 
Presbyterians, they yielded to the wishes of one of their sons who 
had professed religion under the preaching of James Johnson, in 
Kentucky, and with many misgivings agreed that this son might 
invite Johnson to preach at their house. The appointment was 
made and Johnson came and preached. At the close of the ser- 
mon there was deep feeling and the preacher began to shake hands 
with those present as he went singing through the congregation. 
The parents of Mr. Crawford could not stand this, but springing 
to their feet they left the room. When, however, God used these 
same Cumberland Presbyterians in bringing their other children to 
Jesus their prejudices all gave way. 

In 18 1 7 the Rev. Green P. Rice moved to Illinois and settled 
not far from St. Louis, which was then a meager village of French- 
men. In the vicinity of Edwardsville there was a Methodist 
camp-ground but no preacher. Methodists, Presbyterians, and 
Cumberland Presbyterians united in holding prayer -meetings. 



Chapter XVIII.] INDIANA AND ILLINOIS. 171 

There was deep and solemn interest in these meetings, but no 
preacher of any church could be secured. Finally the people 
entered into a solemn agreement to invite the first preachers they 
could get of any evangelical church to come and hold them a camp- 
meeting. Mr. Paisley, a Cumberland Presbyterian pioneer, origi- 
nally from Finis Ewing' s congregation in Kentucky, was the first 
to succeed in securing a minister. He wrote an earnest appeal to 
the Rev. William Barnett setting forth the great need for gospel 
work in that new country. Barnett had no horse, but he took the 
letter to Finis Ewing. Ewing read it to his congregation and 
they raised money and bought Barnett a horse and sent him on 
his way to Illinois. Green P. Rice met him, and he and Rice, at 
this Methodist camp-ground, held the first Cumberland Presbyte- 
rian camp-meeting in Illinois. 1 This was in 181 7. 

In 1818 the Rev. D. W. McLin settled in this State. He was 
a preacher of the original type. He organized the first regular 
congregation of our people in the State. This was the Hopewell 2 
church (now Enfield), in White County. In 18 19 the camp-meet- 
ing at this place was very precious. Among its converts was Joel 
Knight, whose career in the ministry has left its mark for all time 
on the church in Illinois as well as elsewhere. 

The second Cumberland Presbyterian camp-meeting in this 
State was held by R. D. Morrow, John Carnahan, and Green P. 
Rice at Elm Point, in Bond County. A pleasant fact about all 
the first work of the church in Illinois is that it still abides. The 
churches first organized continue yet in existence. 

In 1820 the Board of Missions of the church sent the Rev. 
Alexander Chapman on a missionary tour through this State. 
This was a winter tour, beginning in December, and was one of 
no little hardship, but the missionary reported good results. He 
says that the destitution of the means of grace and the great desire 
of the pioneers for the gospel were enough to melt the hardest 
heart. 

Though Illinois abounded in soil of surpassing depth and fertil- 
ity, yet there were so many new territories thrown open to settlers 

1 Dr. J. B. Logan's History, and other authorities. 
2 Called, at first, Seven Mile Prairie. 



ijz Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period n. 

simultaneously that the prairies were for a long time sparsely set- 
tled. In the manuscript autobiography of the Rev. Joseph M. 
Bone, he tells us that when he moved to Illinois and settled in 
Moultrie County his nearest neighbor lived five miles distant. Yet 
this was in 1829, a period much later than the principal events of 
this chapter. 

A manuscript history of the Cumberland Presbyterian church 
in Illinois, by the Rev. H. H. Ashmore, has been very helpful to 
me in preparing this chapter. Speaking of the hardships of pio- 
neer work on the prairies, he says: 

The pioneer preachers rode over the prairies in summer traveling 
sometimes twenty and thirty miles without passing a house. There 
was danger of getting lost in the rain and fog and they were sometimes 
thus forced to spend the night in the open prairies without food or 
shelter. Wherever there were a few cabins along the skirts of the 
timber they were ready to preach at any hour of the week-day. On 
Saturdays and Sabbaths the people for miles around attended the meet- 
ings, and earnest efforts were put forth to build up congregations. 
Many of the early settlers lived ten miles from their place of worship, 
yet they were rarely absent on Sabbath. The week-day appointment 
was a sort of skirmish line to find a suitable place for the Sunday 
services and for protracted efforts. The meetings were held in school- 
houses, groves, or private residences. In the winter and spring, though 
the circuits were long and the appointments numerous, the preacher 
had to be at each place rain -or shine. If high waters were in the way 
the preacher would place his saddle-bags, inclosing his Bible and hymn 
book and extra linen on his shoulder, and, in less time than a ferry 
could cross, his faithful horse would carry him over by swimming. No 
one who has not seen a snow-storm on the bare prairie can compre- 
hend its driving fury. If the winds were changeable, as was often the 
case, the danger was great At one time a terrible storm overtook 
three teams on the prairie. The wind changed. The horses could only 
go with the, driving snow. The travelers were separated and lost. The 
same day my father was to cross that thirty-mile prairie on his way 
home. After the storm three awful days of suspense passed before we 
heard from him. At the edge of the timber and along the lanes near 
the timber lines the snow was too deep for man or beast to pass. 
Every man that could muster a strong horse was searching for the lost. 
They were brought in one by one, some with fingers frozen and foot- 
sore. At last our eyes were gladdened when my father rode up with 
his great buffalo coat making him look three times his usual size. 



Chapter XVIILJ INDIANA AND ILLINOIS. 173 

Besides the owners of the three teams lost near my father's many other 
people were lost in that storm. All business throughout that whole 
country was suspended while people searched for the lost. Roads 
were blockaded for weeks, and only at great risk could men mounted 
on the strongest horses go from one house to another. Our pioneer 
preachers passed through just such scenes as this. The common peo- 
ple in these early days were glad to have the privilege of going to 
church, or "meeting," as they called it. There were no railroads and 
but few post-offices. Newspapers were a rarity. They were glad to 
meet and hear the preacher and enjoy the privilege of comparing notes. 
People would sometimes sit and listen to a sermon two or three hours 
long without growing weary. If our people of this generation could 
go back to the days of Isaac Hill, Joel Knight, James Ashmore, Will- 
iam Finley, R. D. Taylor, Cyrus Haynes, J. M. Berry, Daniel Traugh- 
ber, and Archibald and Neil Johnson, they would learn how the seed 
of the Cumberland Presbyterian church was sown in this State. These 
men were giants in their day. Lincoln University is largely the result 
of their labors. 

The first presbytery organized exclusively in Illinois was in 
1822. But McGee Presbytery, which was organized in 18 19, 
included in its bounds part of Illinois. In 1822 the order for the 
organization of Illinois Presbytery was passed. Its original mem- 
bers were to be Green P. Rice, D. W. McLin, John M. Berry, and 
W. M. Hamilton. Rice did not attend; all the others were pres- 
ent. This presbytery immediately organized a presbyterial board 
of missions. Nine probationers for the ministry were transferred 
to its care. That meant circuit riding. In 1829 this presbytery 
had ten members in good standing. It had been obliged to silence 
some of its ministers. One of these cases of discipline was mixed 
up with the great slavery question, and shows that the church in 
Illinois at an early day took a decided stand on that subject. 

There is a wonderful difference between the growth of the 
Cumberland Presbyterian church in the two States to which this 
chapter is devoted. In Indiana there are now (1885) but three 
presbyteries ; in Illinois there are ten. There is one thing indicated 
both by recent statistics and by this early history which may help 
to explain the difference. In Illinois from the beginning there 
was a vigorous struggle to raise up a home supply of preachers. 
Fast-days were appointed on which all the congregations joined in 



174 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period ir. 

prayer that God would call and send forth men of his own choos- 
ing to preach the gospel. God answered these prayers, as he will 
do to-day in all our frontier presbyteries if, instead of clamoring 
for more preachers to come from the older States, they will ask 
God to call their own sons into the work. 

Another fact doubtless had its influence in causing this superior 
growth in Illinois. At an early day some of the oldest ministers 
of the church made this State their permanent home. Among 
these were Samuel McAdow, one of the three men who formed the 
first presbytery of the church. David Foster and D. W. McL,in 
also cast their lots permanently with the pioneers of Illinois. The 
first preachers of the church made preaching tours in Indiana, but 
none of them settled in that State; and when a later generation of 
Cumberland Presbyterian preachers made their homes there a large 
portion of the ground was preoccupied. From the first it was a 
maxim of our people not to build on other men's foundations, but 
to go among the destitute. With very few exceptions our preach- 
ers have conformed to that maxim in the past, and do still confanil 
to it. 



Chapter XIX.] MISSOURI AND ARKANSAS. 175 



CHAPTER XIX 



PLANTING THE CHURCH IN MISSOURI AND ARKAN- 
SAS, 1S11 TO 1829. 

So willing to toil and travel, 

To suffer and watch for all, 
So near in heart to the Master, 

So eager to hear his call, — 
They spent their souls in the service sweet, 
And only in death could rest at his feet. 

— B. M. 

THE first great tide of American emigrants to Missouri Terri- 
tory began in 18 16. There were Cumberland Presbyterians 
in that first tide, and the usual cry soon began to come, "Send us 
a preacher." In 1817 the first Cumberland Presbyterian sermon 
was preached in the Territory by Green P. Rice at the little French 
village of St. Louis. The first Cumberland Presbyterian preacher 
to settle in Missouri was Daniel Buie. He was a citizen already 
established in Howard County and had regular preaching places 
when R. D. Morrow made his visit to that country in 18 19. In a 
graphic history of Buie's emigration to Missouri we are told that 
he made the journey in 1818 in a one-horse cart. 

In April, 1819, the ladies' missionary society at Russellville, 
Kentucky, requested the presbytery to send the Rev. R. D. Mor- 
row on a preaching tour through Missouri Territory. The presby- 
tery agreed to the plan and the missionary board fixed his salary 
at twenty dollars per month. He had to make his own appoint- 
ments and " blaze his own way" in more senses than one. A let- 
ter of instructions was placed in his hands and he was commended 
to God and sent forth on his responsible mission. Mounting his 
horse, equipped for travel through the wilderness, he started on his 
long, solitary journey. Could he have foreseen the glorious work for 
Jesus to which God was leading him his heart would have leaped 



176 • Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period 11. 

for joy. He carried bell and u hobble" for his horse and rations 
for himself. Besides these things there were a few books in his 
saddle-bags. The wilderness between Logan County, Kentucky, 
and Alton, Illinois, was passed with only his horse for a traveling 
companion. Crossing the river he proceeded up to what is now 
Pike County, where he preached to a few settlers, among whom 
were three Cumberland Presbyterians. Proceeding westward he 
held his next meeting in Callaway County. At that meeting were 
grown men who had never heard a sermon in their lives. Many 
such there were in that territory — children of pioneers who pene- 
trated the wilderness long in advance of the general tide of emi- 
gration. Settling down on some rich prairie perhaps ten miles 
from the nearest neighbor, these pioneers brought their children 
up without schools and without churches. 

In just such a home amid just such destitution was our now 
venerable brother, the Rev. J. T. A. Henderson, reared. His rich 
manuscript autobiography, now before me, describes the joy of the 
whole family when they heard of a Methodist preacher making an 
appointment for occasional preaching within reach of their home. 
When this family and one other settled near Round Prairie, Mis- 
souri, there was no other family within a circuit of ten miles. It 
was many a long year before there was any school within reach. 
Having neither post-offices, newspapers, nor stores, the pioneers 
lived a lonely life. There was plenty of game and plenty of prai- 
rie grass. In some parts of the territory the grass grew higher 
than a man's head when he was mounted on his horse. At a later 
day this grass teemed with a species of flies so numerous that they 
sometimes killed the traveler's horse as he rode across the prairies. 
It is a touching thing to read Mr. Henderson's account of his 
rapture when at last his home was surrounded with neighbors who 
employed a school-teacher. Into such sparse settlements of pio- 
neers Mr. Morrow penetrated, proclaiming the gospel and planting 
the standard of our King. 

When time for the meeting of Logan Presbytery drew near, Mr. 
Morrow saddled his horse and made the long journey back to Ken- 
tucky. He was one of those who never failed to be present at the 
judicatures of his church. At this meeting he was pitied and crit- 



Chapter XIX.] MISSOURI AND ARKANSAS. 1 77 

icized for his emaciated appearance. The long journey, the arduous 
labor, and the indescribable hardships, had well-nigh cost him his 
life. Yet at that meeting of the Presbytery he made an appeal for 
the spiritually destitute pioneers of Missouri which melted the 
people to tears. His whole heart was enlisted for that field, and 
his wonderful career afterward was but an outgrowth of his deep 
earnestness. 

Again Mr. Morrow was sent to Missouri. The orders under 
which the missionary went on this second trip required him to 
remain a year. Although Missouri now had a presbytery, and Mr. 
Morrow's membership was in it, yet he still worked under the mis- 
sionary board at Russellville, Kentucky. His report to that board 
in the fall of 1820 deserves to be handed down as a precious record. 
Here it is, copied from the manuscript history prepared by L,ogan 
Presbytery in obedience to the order of the General Synod: 

I traveled as a missionary in Missouri nine months. I passed 
through all the counties in the Territory except two. I rode horseback 
upwards of three thousand miles; have enjoyed pretty good health. 
I was kindly received by the people. My congregations were large 
and attentive. The desire for preaching from our body surpasses any 
thing I have ever before witnessed. Everywhere the people were 
pressing me to return and preach for them again. Often I left them 
with tears streaming down their cheeks, while they said, "You are 
going away, and we shall have no more preaching. Our children are 
growing up in a strange land, without having any one to show them 
the way of life." Mothers would follow me to the gate, begging me to 
pray for them and their children in that wild wilderness. Young peo- 
ple would mount their horses and ride with me five or six da}^s for the 
sake of instruction in spiritual things. Among these were many poor 
sinners seeking salvation, many of whom were grown men and women 
who had never heard a sermon in their lives till I came among them. 
During my tour I preached one hundred and sixty sermons. The Lord 
was with me, and applied his own truth to the hearts of my hearers. 
Sixty-five professed to find Christ precious to their souls. I received 
forty-nine dollars for your missionary board. 

Mr. Morrow was continued in Missouri. He was now connected 
with another presbytery, but he wrote a letter to I^ogan Presbytery 
the next year (182 1) pleading with undiminished fervor for the des- 
titute. In that letter he says he finds that good fruits have fol- 
12 



178 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period 11. 

lowed his former visits, and that there have been several conver- 
sions among those whom he left in tears. He had held four camp- 
meetings since his return to Missouri, all of which were successful. 
Then he adds: 

Brethren and fathers, permit me, through you, to address the Ladies' 
Missionary Society under your care. I want them to know that their 
labor of love in the cause of God has not been in vain. The great 
Head of the Church has condescended to bless the weak efforts of their 
missionary far beyond what I had any right to expect. Precious souls 
in great numbers have been brought to the knowledge of salvation. 
But past success greatly increases the demand for more missionaries. 
O that you and they could hear the cries of the destitute which are 
coming up from all quarters of this wilderness, cries for the gospel of 
our salvation, cries for more preachers, coming up, too, from the uncon- 
verted as well as from lambs of the fold, who have no one to guide 
them in the way of life. 

The order for the organization of McGee Presbytery was passed 
in the autumn after Morrow was first sent to that field (1819). Its 
original members were Green P. Rice, Daniel Buie, R. D. Morrow, 
and John Carnahan. Rice lived in Illinois, and Carnahan across 
the wilderness, five hundred miles away in Arkansas; yet all these 
men were at the organization. 

The next year (1820) Finis Ewing moved to Missouri and set- 
tled in Cooper County among his old neighbors from Kentucky 
who had preceded him. Pie soon had an organized congregation, 
a meeting-house, and, of course, a camp-ground. This church, 
New Lebanon, has had a remarkable history, and has shared largely 
in the work for the Master in that State. 

In 1 82 1 R. D. Morrow and Finis Ewing opened a school of the 
prophets. Morrow taught science and Ewing theology. No 
charge was made for the young preachers' tuition or boarding. 
McGee Presbytery had already enrolled a large number of candi- 
dates for the ministry, and these eagerly availed themselves of the 
advantages here offered. There was a long summer vacation which 
was spent in preaching tours and camp-meetings, Morrow and 
Ewing accompanying the young preachers. 

In all the history of our church there is no more interesting 
work than that done by this school. It was a pioneer theological 






Chapter XIX.] MISSOURI AND ARKANSAS. 179 

seminary conducted by live men who loved souls and knew how to 
work for them. Morrow was a man of good scholarship, and pre- 
sided over a college in later years; but this pioneer theological 
school stands pre-eminent among the good results of his and 
E wing's noble work for the Master. The roll of young men here 
taught includes many cherished and honored names, and one must 
read the history of the whole Cumberland Presbyterian church to 
appreciate the precious fruits of this school. There were features 
about the school which deserve to be copied by our later and 
stronger theological seminary. It combined theory with practice, 
not that stupid moot practice before a professor in the recitation 
room, which always seemed to me to be a good way to teach life- 
less routine and make hypocrites, but practice under the eyes of 
the professors out in the real harvest-field where souls are perish- 
ing, and where trophies for the eternal crown of glory are won by 
the young laborers. The teachers went along with their pupils, 
and held meetings during their long vacation. 

In the spring of 1822 the Rev. R. D. King, a licentiate, and 
the Rev. Reuben Burrow, a candidate, were ordered by Elk Pres- 
bytery to travel and preach in Missouri. I am fortunate in having 
a full account of this tour from both the actors in it. They started 
on horseback from Tennessee just after the April meeting of the 
presbytery. Their first entertainment was swimming water-courses. 
After this followed a much more protracted entertainment in the 
form of chills and fever; yet they missed no appointments until 
long after, when sickness of a more stubborn nature caused a few 
failures. Burrow says: 

I was placed on a circuit with John Morrow. The circuit was in 
western Missouri, including the country where Lexington and Inde- 
pendence have since risen up. . . . About the fourth day, after Brother 
Morrow had preached rather a dull sermon, I was invited to conclude 
the services; and while trying to talk, ere I was aware of my own con- 
dition, God had raised me higher and filled me fuller of heaven than 
ever before. The people present were deeply moved by the power of 
the Almighty. ... In the course of about two weeks the most of them 
made profession of religion. Captain William Jack became awakened 
on this occasion, and covenanted with others to seek life, but did not 
find peace till two weeks afterward. 



180 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period n. 

A camp-meeting was lield not far away. Captain Jack took his 
family and attended. It was there he found Jesus, and his after 
life was full of usefulness to the church. There were over three 
hundred converts on that circuit that year. Burrow states: 

The people were kind to us, and gave us some clothing such as they 
could make, and I received eight dollars in money for the year, and felt 
very well contented and thankful for that. 

At one time during this missionary journey Burrow's horse got 
out and ran off, but he was not to be thwarted by a little thing like 
that. He shouldered his saddle-bags and started around his circuit 
afoot. He had eighty miles to travel over the prairies. He says: 

My feet became very sore from travel. The second day about three 
o'clock I entered the last stretch of my journey. It was a prairie of 
more than twenty miles. Here I toiled in weariness and pain until 
midnight before I reached a house where I could quench my thirst and 
rest my weary limbs. 

Here Captain Jack overtook him, bringing his horse. An inci- 
dent in Dr. Burrow's later life has the same ring. He was regular 
supply for a church fifteen miles from his home. On one occasion 
he had no horse to ride to his appointment. He made no effort to 
borrow, but taking his staff in his hand (he was an old man then) 
he walked to his appointment. 

While Burrow rode the circuit with the youthful John Morrow, 
King was taken under the guardianship of the Rev. R. D. Morrow, 
to travel with him and hold meetings. They spent the summer 
holding camp-meetings in the bounds of McGee Presbytery. In 
the fall, when Morrow returned to his work in the school, King 
was placed on a circuit in Ray and Clay counties. He kept up his 
work on this circuit until February, when he was prostrated by 
sickness. In the spring he traveled one hundred miles to be at the 
meeting of McGee Presbytery, although he had a chill every other 
day on the whole trip. 

Next year Mr. King returned to Elk Presbytery, but was sent 
back to Missouri in company with his father, the Rev. Samuel 
King, on another missionary tour. Then he and his father both 
moved to that State, where his father spent the remainder of his 
life in earnest labors, preaching to the very last. Among the 



Chapter XIX.] MISSOURI AND ARKANSAS. l8l 

converts of R. D. King's meetings in various fields were L,eRoy 
Woods, T. M. Johnston, and many others, who afterward became 
efficient ministers. King's ashes rest in Texas, where he closed 
his life of toil. 

While these missionaries from a distance planted the church in 
Missouri, it was the home supply of ministers who grew up in that 
pioneer school taught by Bwing and Morrow that carried on and 
established the work. In a careful study of the whole field from 
Pennsylvania to California I find no section or State where the 
church has become a strong, established power without this home 
supply of pastors and evangelists. Looking to distant fields for 
missionaries instead of praying God to call our own sons to the 
holy work is the road to failure. It is the sons of Texas who are 
taking that great State for Jesus. It is Pennsylvanians who are 
making the church strong in western Pennsylvania. It was the 
sons of Missouri who, in the early history of the church, gave 
Missouri such a prominent place among Cumberland Presbyterians. 
But no native Californian is leading our forces on the golden 
shores. Other parts of the church supply ministers to bear our 
banners in Ohio. Preachers from other States are chiefly depended 
on to fill our pulpits in Louisiana and Georgia. We need the 
return of the spirit of the olden times. We ought to go with 
fasting, and humility, and humble prayer to God, pleading with 
him to call men, to call our own sons, to the gospel ministry. 

In 1823 tne R ev - Robert Sloan was one of Missouri's circuit 
riders. One of his camp-meetings, in Chariton County, was the 
means of bringing many of the prominent settlers into the fold of 
Christ. That meeting is spoken of even yet in Missouri as a won- 
derful work of God among the pioneers. Several of the converts 
were men who in after years made a deep impression on the public 
affairs of that country. In 1824 Mr. Sloan spent six months on 
what was then called the ' ( hard circuit. ' ' For this six months' 
labor he received one white cravat. Mr. Sloan continued his faith- 
ful pioneer labors till the close of his life. His noble wife, who 
was a daughter of the Rev. Finis Ewing, still survives. 

Among the faithful workers for Jesus in this field, as in all 
others were noble women not a few. Those who would like to 



182 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period n. 

read the life of one of the noblest of these are referred to the bios-- 
raphy of Mrs. Margaret Ewing — "Aunt Peggy," as she was called— 
written by her gifted son, Judge R. C. Ewing. 

Among the hardy pioneers of the Missouri churches the Rev. 
Archibald McCorkle fills an honorable place. He traveled through 
the wilderness from one new settlement to another. He carried 
his own provisions, slept on the ground, and turned his hobbled 
horse on the grass at night. He faced the beating rains and the 
bitter snow-storms in order to preach Jesus to men living in the 
destitute regions of the frontier. In one of the camp-meetings on 
Mr. McCorkle' s circuit there was such a general victory that, like 
Hugh Kirkpatrick in the meeting in Tennessee, described in a 
former chapter, he reported ' ' all the material worked up ' ' — that is, 
all the unconverted people present became Christians. The work 
at this meeting began under the preaching of the Rev. Finis 
Ewing. During one of Mr. McCorkle' s tours over a hundred per- 
sons claimed to be converted in his meetings, and yet for that six 
months of successful work among the scattered pioneers he received 
just eight dollars; the same salary which Reuben Burrow received 
a few years before for six months of arduous toil with the grandest 
results on the records of the church's pioneer work. 

Burrow and McCorkle both furnished their own horses and paid 
their own unavoidable traveling expenses. But eight dollars was 
more than the pay many another missionary received, not only in 
Missouri but even in the oldest parts of the church. R. D. King 
preached two years in Maury and Giles counties, Tennessee, before 
he moved to Missouri, receiving for his services neither money nor 
any other kind of compensation from the people to whom he 
ministered. He lived on the small estate which his wife had inher- 
ited till that was exhausted, and then sold his little farm for money 
enough to take him to Missouri. 

The Rev. Hugh Robinson Smith was among those who took 
the infant churches of Missouri by the hand and rendered them 
great service. He also sought out the homes of the destitute and 
planted churches among the scattered cabins on the prairies. He 
carried Hebrew and Greek books in his saddle-bags and pursued a 
full course of study while on his circuits. His career, says Judge 



Chapter XIX.] MISSOURI AND ARKANSAS. 183 

Ewing, was full, complete, finished. In all its parts he accom- 
plished his mission, and was wanting neither in literary preparation 
nor in soundness of doctrine, neither in unction of the Holy Ghost 
nor in fidelity to perform the work committed to his trust. Judge 
Ewing speaks also of Frank M. Braly as a representative of the 
best type of Missouri's circuit riders. He was among the hardy 
pioneers of an early day. His father went to Missouri in advance 
of that great wave of emigration which set in toward that territory 
in 1816. He was brought up in that wilderness, and to the circuit 
on the frontiers and to camp-meetings he devoted all the days of 
his manhood. For one whole year devoted exclusively to the 
work of an itinerant evangelist he received nine dollars and fifty 
cents. 

Judge Ewing relates a characteristic incident of Mr. Braly' s 
career. On his way to the meeting of presbytery, accompanied by 
several others, one of the young preachers was taken suddenly 
sick so that he could not travel. Mr. Braly remained with him. 
Their stopping place was a cabin in the wilderness. Neither doc- 
tor nor drugs were to be had, but 'Mr. Braly believed that God 
healed the sick in answer to the prayer of faith; so he and his 
friend resorted to the great Physician and his friend recovered in 
time to reach the presbytery. Another incident from the same 
authority illustrates the manner in which opposition and prejudice 
were often overcome. A Calvinist of the most rigid type under- 
took to prove to Mr. Braly that missionary work and all revival 
meetings and camp-meetings were uncalled for and wrong, because 
God would save his own elect in his own way and time. He 
seemed to be sorry for Mr. Braly personally, and to wish to dis- 
suade him from undergoing all the fatigue and hardships which he 
was encountering. He tried to convince the preacher that no 
amount of exertion which he could make would change the final 
results. It is not claimed that this man was a fair representative 
of genuine Calvinism, but his perversion of the doctrine was a 
very common one among its professed adherents. Mr. Braly, 
however, went on with his meeting. Several members of the Cal- 
vinist' s family were at the "mourner's bench" weeping and crying 
for mercy, and soon they were filled with joy and peace in Jesus. 



184 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period 11. 

Their faces shone with a heavenly radiance as they told what God 
had done for them. Then this man's prejudices all vanished. 

Judge Ewing in his sketches gives a touching picture of Bra- 
ly's faithfulness and self-denying consecration. At one time he 
had traveled among the destitute, holding meetings and receiving 
no pay until his clothing was almost worn out. His boots espe- 
cially were unfit to wear and he had no money to buy new ones, 
yet he made a long journey through a strange land in order to 
attend the meeting of synod, and in spite of his worn garments he 
was in his place in that body. Nor were the rough frontier regions 
of Missouri alone in leaving their missionaries thus to suffer. 
There was a man, now aged and infirm, who traveled in West Ten- 
nessee in 1846 holding meetings among a prosperous people. For 
six months he preached nearly every day, and more than three hun- 
dred persons professed conversion at his meetings. In all that time 
he received no compensation, either in clothing or in money. A 
rich elder said to him, ' ' Go down to the shoe shop and get your 
boots mended. ' ' The young man went, but having no money he 
borrowed tools and tried as best he could to do his own repairing. 
He adopted the old programme of saying nothing about money 
or pay of any kind to anybody. The Cumberland Presbyterian 
church had its beginning under this mistaken plan, and the exam- 
ple of ' ' the fathers ' ' is still the argument which is everywhere 
used by those church members who want their pastor to serve 
them for naught. 

We must remember how scattered and sparse were the settle- 
ments in all the new territories before we can appreciate the vic- 
tories won in these early meetings. An account of a camp-meet- 
ing held in Missouri in 182 1 will illustrate this point. It is taken 
from the published biography of the Rev. A. A. Young, who was 
one of our early preachers in that State: The people in this 
sparsely settled region (now Saline County) had no Sabbath -schools, 
no churches, no preaching, no prayer-meetings. They determined 
to secure some preachers to hold a camp-meeting. Their efforts 
were successful, and they selected a spot about equally distant from 
several settlements, but five miles from the nearest house. When 
the camps were erected and all the population of the adjacent set- 



Chapter XIX.] MISSOURI AND ARKANSAS. 185 

tlements were gathered together there were just twenty-five persons 
present. Yet that meeting was perhaps as fruitful in the long run 
as some in later times in which the converts are counted by the 
hundred. At that meeting A. A. Young, whose after life in the 
ministry was greatly blessed, found the preaching just what John 
Crawford l of Illinois, found it a few years before. The mask was 
torn off his heart, and he saw himself helpless and ruined and con- 
demned before God, and cried earnestly for help to Jesus, who alone 
could save, nor did he cry in vain. 

The Rev. Daniel Patton, who was one of the most useful Cum- 
berland Presbyterian pioneers in Missouri, is still living, and 
though now over eighty years of age, he still takes his horse and 
his saddle-bags and goes out on an old-time circuit as an itinerant 
missionary in that field. He rode the circuit in South Alabama 
in 182 1. His history of our church in Missouri is before me. He 
begins with Barnett Presbyter} 7 , which was organized in April, 
1828, at Lexington, Missouri. The ministers composing this pres- 
bytery were Samuel King, R. D. Morrow, Daniel Patton, and Henry 
Renick. Under its care were Clemens Means and William Horn, 
candidates, and Robert Renick, a licentiate. Of the early work 
of this presbyter> r Patton says: 

To know man perfectly you must see him under the pressure of 
the varied phases of human life. You must see the pioneer preacher 
in his log-cabin built by his own hands. In frontier settlements in an 
unbroken wilderness of more than five hundred miles north and one 
thousand miles west, our first Missouri preachers with their families 
found their homes. In a few years other settlements are formed 
beyond. The cry comes up from the new settlements, Come over and 
help us. To answer this cry wide-spread prairies without roads and 
deep creeks without bridges had to be crossed. None of these things 
deter the pioneer preacher. 

The same writer gives a sketch of the early preachers of Mis- 
souri. Of Samuel King he says: 

He was preaching in my father's house, in Bedford County, Ten- 
nessee, to a crowded company, when my father professed faith in the 
blessed Savior. I saw father passing through the crowd clapping his 
hands and praising God, and many others doing the same. I was then 
eleven years old. I record this incident not only as a grateful remem- 



186 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period n. 

brance of the past, but to present an instance of the power manifested 
in all the public ministrations of Samuel King. He was pre-eminently 
a man of prayer. Pie lived more on his knees than any man I ever 
knew, hence his power in the pulpit. I believe that God gave him 
more seals to his ministry than to any other man since Whitefield's 
day. I heard Finis Ewing say more than once, "I would rather 
preach after any other man." Pie said it seemed to him that King 
always said all that could be said to profit, and the state of feeling was 
so high that it would only be lowered by his effort. I am sure no man 
was a better judge of preaching than Finis Ewing. 

It was Patton himself who was preaching at Bee Creek camp- 
meeting, Missouri, when the people rose to their feet and uncon- 
sciously pressed toward the pulpit till they were densely crowded 
around the preacher. There was no more preaching for two days, 
* ' altar work ' ' taking up all the time. 

Another glimpse of Patton' s work is found in his history of 
Barnett Presbytery. He says: 

The writer husked corn which grew from the soil where Rich- 
mond, the county seat of Ray County, now stands. He helped raise 
the first log-cabins to make it a town. He made the first wagon road 
running north from Richmond, crossing the west fork of Crooked 
River on his land one mile from town. He drove the first four-horse 
team that crossed this stream after digging the bank to ascend. This 
road was for many years the highway of emigration north. As much 
of this northward travel was directly by my cabin I was much ques- 
tioned as to the country beyond. I entertained many weary travelers, 
always free. You see by these means many formed my acquaintance, 
so that I was known to almost all the new settlements north. As soon 
as little settlements were formed it was but natural for them to ask me 
to come out and preach for them. I well remember my first tour to 
the forks of Grand River. Some of my old Ray County friends had 
settled there and thereabouts. The presbytery had sent out William 
Clark, a good young man, just licensed to preach, to form a sort of cir- 
cuit to suit the frontier settlements. I was to follow, preach, and 
administer ordinances as needed. The first day's travel I swam two 
considerable streams on the back of my horse, and then steered for a 
"deadening" in a little grove of timber. I found a kind family in a 
new cabin, nature's floor and nature's fare, fat venison and good cheer. 
The next day with difficulty I found the place for preaching. Mr. 
Clark had preached in the forenoon and the people were gathering for 
the three o'clock service. 



Chapter XIX.] MISSOURI AND ARKANSAS. 187 

In a little grove between Shoal Creek and Grand River, Patton 
held a camp-meeting. He does not give the date, bnt he says of 
the meeting: 

I was conducted to the place by an old hunter who knew the coun- 
try and led the wav " by course," as we used to travel in the unbroken 
wilds. My guide and myself were the first to reach the place. I exam- 
ined the ground with a feeling of interest which no man can realize 
who has not been placed in a like position. The lonely place, the 
hastily-raised pulpit, the rude, narrow "slab" seats, a narrow path cut 
through the brush to a good spring at the base of the hill, called to my 
mind Isaiah's prediction of the gospel's spread and conquests, "The 
wilderness and solitary places shall be glad for them: yea, the desert 
shall rejoice and blossom as the rose." Strange but true, whilst I call 
up the glorious scenes of the past I live over the emotions of soul of 
which I certainly was the subject at that time! I involuntarily and 
most earnestly asked, Will this solitary place be made glad to-day 
because of thy presence, O God? The answer in my poor heart was, 
It will. And so it was. 

Most of Mr. Patton '-s history belongs to a later period. 

Some facts recorded in the history of the Cumberland Presbyte- 
rian church in Missouri, written by the Rev. P. G. Rea,are here 
given. Jacob Ish, a Cumberland Presbyterian elder, was the first 
man who drove a wagon into Big Bottom, near the place where 
Glasgow, Missouri, now stands. This was in 1816. New Leba- 
non church was organized by John Carnahan in the house of Alex- 
ander Sloan, father of the Rev. Robert Sloan, in 1820. Among 
the children and grandchildren of the members of the first session 
of this church there have been twelve preachers. It was here that 
the school of Ewing and Morrow was located. 

Where pioneer settlers in the wilderness were destitute of the 
gospel, there the early Cumberland Presbyterian preachers preferred 
going. In a great many instances they declined to organize 
churches in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and New 
York, saying that every preacher our people had was needed in the 
West by those who had no minister of any church to break to them 
the bread of life. That there was no sectarian ambition among our 
people then is not asserted, but that there was far less of it then 
than now can be maintained. 



188 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period n. 

A pioneer scene in Missouri is here sketched. When Mr. Will- 
iam Blackwell, a Cumberland Presbyterian elder, moved to Mis- 
souri, in 1827, and settled in the wilderness, wolves and Indians 
were no rarity in his neighborhood. In 1829 ^ r - Blackwell was liv- 
ing in what was then Randolph County, when tidings of an Indian 
invasion and of murders in the region where Kirksville now stands 
reached him. Joining a band of volunteers he hurried to the 
relief of the invaded settlements. A battle followed. The whites 
fought fiercely, but were compelled to retreat. In the retreat Mr* 
Blackwell came up with a wounded man afoot. He placed this 
man upon his own horse, and continued his retreat. Farther on 
he came upon another comrade who had stopped from exhaustion. 
While Mr. Blackwell was trying to help this comrade on, a shot 
from the Indians killed the poor fellow, and Blackwell continued 
his retreat. Farther on he found another comrade lying fast under 
a dead horse which had been shot, and although the Indians were 
coming, he waited to extricate him, and then again continued his 
retreat. His rescued comrade was soon shot down, but Mr. Black- 
well escaped. It. was for the sake of such men and their families 
that our first preachers longed to labor in these pioneer fields. 

Mr. Blackwell helped to organize the first congregation of Cum- 
berland Presbyterians in that part of the country. The preacher 
who held the meeting out of which that church grew was the Rev. 
James Dysart. The church was called Liberty. 

While the French title to what is now Arkansas was transferred 
to the United States in 1803, yet Indian claims and Indian inhab- 
itants long interposed other obstacles to its settlement by white 
people. Arkansas had its separate organization as a Territory in 
1819, and was admitted into the Union as a State in 1836. Before 
the organization of its territorial government, and while the In- 
dians were still in the land, the country furnished a retreat to those 
hardy and daring young men who loved adventure and wanted to 
secure good lands in advance of the inevitable white settlements. 
Several of these had young wives as daring as their husbands ; and 
there yet live old ladies who on the long winter evenings tell the 
throng of happy children that gather around them in their now 
prosperous and elegant homes about their wonderful adventures. 



Chapter XIX.] MISSOURI AND ARKANSAS. 189 

In 181 1 1 some families of Cumberland Presbyterians, converts 
of the great revival, moved to Arkansas. James and Jacob Pyatt 
and their wives, and two young Carnahans, James and Samuel — 
sons of John Carnahan, the preacher— embarked in a flatboat and 
floated down the Tennessee, the Ohio, and the Mississippi, to the 
mouth of Arkansas River. Though they were all Kentuckians, 
yet it was from northern Alabama that they emigrated. Like 
many others, they had rushed to Alabama when some of the Indian 
titles were extinguished, only to find others still in force, and to be 
driven off as intruders. It took them from January to May to 
make this journey to the mouth of the Arkansas River. Then 
they went up that river in a keel-boat to Arkansas Post — the oldest 
settlement in the' territory. Here they expected to make their 
homes, but they soon found that the only religion there was 
Roman Catholicism. The population was French, Indians, and a 
few Americans. Things did not -suit them, so they determined to 
go farther up the river. In 18 12 they went past the spot where 
the city of Little Rock now stands to a bluff fifteen miles above, 
where they established their homes. The name of the place was 
Crystal Hill. 

The same year (18 12) the father of the two Carnahans moved 
to Arkansas. He had been riding the circuit as a licensed exhorter 
before. In the house of Jacob Pyatt he preached the first Prot- 
estant sermon ever preached in Arkansas territory. In those days 
our people licensed a man twice: first as exhorter, or lay evangelist, 
and, if " he purchased to himself a good degree, ' ' they afterward 
licensed him as a probationer for the full work of the ministry. 
At the meeting of the Cumberland Presbytery in October, 18 12, 
John Carnahan was ordered to form a circuit on the Arkansas 
River, " among the people where he lived.-' 2 When the synod 
was formed (181 3), Carnahan was placed on the roll of Elk Presby- 
tery. He attended its meetings regularly till a presbytery was 
organized in his own field. In 1814 he was licensed in the regular 
way. 3 The presbytery ordered him back to his old circuit on the 
Arkansas River, and also addressed a circular letter to the people 

J The Pyatt MSS. Secured for me by President F. R. Earle. 

2 Minutes in the Quarterly, 1878, p. 496. 3 Elk Minutes, Vol. I., p. 8. 



190 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period 11. 

of those settlements, commending Mr. Carnahan to them as an 
excellent man and a worthy minister. This solitary standard- 
bearer determined to make this new country his permanent home, 
and for nine years he was the only Cumberland Presbyterian 
preacher in all that field. In October, 1816, 1 the pioneers peti- 
tioned for his ordination, and their petition was granted. During 
all the years of his lonely toil on the frontier, he was in the habit 
of attending every meeting of his presbytery. The place of meet- 
ing was often more than five hundred miles from his home, and he 
traveled all the distance on horseback. Once the presbytery kept 
him six months in Tennessee and Alabama for his health's sake, 
and then sent him back to Arkansas. 

It is claimed in papers left by the Pyatt family that Carnahan 
held the first sacramental meeting ever held by Protestants on 
Arkansas soil. In all the western territories opened up between 
1800 and 1840 Cumberland Presbyterians were pioneers in gos- 
pel work. God raised them up for frontier missions. Carnahan' s 
sacramental meeting was at the house of one of the Pyatts, and he 
baptized a daughter of the family. Then there were five persons 
who joined him in celebrating the Lord's Supper. This was 
twenty years before Arkansas was a State, and three years before 
it had a territorial government. Away in this wilderness the Car- 
nahans and the Pyatts had erected the family altar, and now they 
provided also for the ordinances of God's house. These families 
were noted for liberality. There was but little money circulating 
in any of the pioneer settlements, but where the heart is right lib- 
eral souls will find ways of doing liberal deeds. In 1823 Pyatt's 
little boy, seeing Reuben Burrow nearly shoeless, made the mis- 
sionary a pair of shoes with his own hands. The pioneers had to 
perform such tasks as the making of their own shoes. 

Another incident is here given illustrating the character, habits, 
and adventures of these pioneers. Jacob Pyatt kept a ferry-boat. 
One day there came a weary pedestrian, stating that he had met 
with misfortunes and had no money to pay his ferriage. Pyatt 
took him over the river, and kept him at his own house a week ; 
then he mounted him on one of his horses, and, sending a boy 

1 Minutes of Elk Presbytery, Vol. L, p. 25. 



Chapter XIX.] MISSOURI AND ARKANSAS. 191 

along with him to bring the animal back, thus conveyed him 
home to Little Rock. That young man was a nephew of the Rev. 
Thomas Calhoun. He graduated at Princeton College, Kentucky, 
and finally became governor of Arkansas. 

Crystal Hill settlement was a center for Cumberland Presbyte- 
rian immigrants. Among others the Blairs, two of whom afterward 
became ministers, made that neighborhood their home. John Car- 
nahan was still with them, devoting himself to the work of an evan- 
gelist, and traveling all the way to Tennessee every six months to 
attend the meetings of his presbytery. 

After a few years Carnahan's membership was transferred to the 
McGee Presbytery, which included Arkansas in its bounds. That 
body became deeply concerned about the organization of a new 
presbytery in Mr. Carnahan's field. As there was a prospect for a 
supply of candidates for the ministry from that territory, the pres- 
bytery determined to hold an ( ' intermediate ' ' meeting in Arkansas. 
The distance was great, and much of the intervening country an 
uninhabited wilderness. The route was partly through Indian 
neighborhoods, and none of the rivers had either bridges or ferries. 
The young and active men of the presbytery were therefore to be 
pressed into this distant mission. It has already been noticed that 
Reuben Burrow, then a candidate, and R. D. King, then a licentiate, 
were traveling as missionaries in Missouri. Both were at the meet- 
ing of McGee Presbytery in 1823, though King was sick in bed. 
The presbytery, however, licensed Burrow and ordained King in 
order to send them to Arkansas. King, though very sick, was 
held up, a good lady plying camphor in the meantime, while they 
ordained him. Then the moderator resigned, and King was chosen 
moderator in his stead, so that he might preside at the intermediate 
meeting of the presbytery. It was five hundred miles to the place 
of meeting, and one third of the way was a wilderness. Most of the 
nights had to be spent without shelter, but King, Long, and Bur- 
row were with Carnahan at the appointed place on the appointed 
day. 

The presbytery at this intermediate session received three can- 
didates for the ministry. Two of these were James H. Black and 
J. M. Blair, men whose names were afterward well known through- 



192 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period n. 

out the Arkansas churches. After the close of the meeting, which 
was held at the house of John Craig, on White River, Mr. Long 
returned to Missouri, while Burrow and King remained to do mis- 
sion work in Arkansas. These missionaries held two camp-meet- 
ings that same year in Mr. Craig's neighborhood, both of which 
were greatly blessed. Carnahan and King went to the Arkansas 
River, while Burrow formed a circuit among the White River set- 
tlements. 

In King's autobiography he says there were grown men at his 
meetings who had never heard a prayer, much less a sermon. The 
settlements were few and far between. The largest crowd of peo- 
ple which even a camp-meeting could draw together might possi- 
bly reach, in extreme cases, a hundred and fifty persons. Great 
gaps of unpeopled wilderness stretched between the settlements; 
and of the one hundred and fifty persons who might possibly be at 
a camp-meeting, some had to come from a distance of more than a 
hundred miles. When forty or fifty converts are reported at one 
camp-meeting, we are to understand that from fifty to eighty per 
cent, of the entire assembly were converted. 

King and Carnahan being ordained ministers, took special 
charge of the camp-meetings. The camps were built of rails, and 
covered with bushes or the leafy boughs of trees. The preaching 
places were not covered, except the stand or pulpit, which had 
over it a shed of leafy branches. In these rude frontier tabernacles 
God was pleased to display his converting grace, and many a 
church grew up where these rude encampments were erected. 

After several months of circuit work Burrow joined the camp- 
meeting corps at Fort Smith; but before he reached the meeting 
he was attacked with chills. The first two camp-meetings which 
he attended were crowned with gracious results; but Burrow grew 
worse, until he was unable to preach, and finally became delirious 
with fever. Then Carnahan was also taken with fever. King 
found himself alone. Another camp - meeting, one hundred and 
fifty miles farther down the river, had been appointed. Neither 
Burrow nor Carnahan was able to sit up, but King was not to be 
thwarted. He bought a very large canoe, or pirogue. In this he 
placed dried prairie grass for beds, and put a cover on bows over 



Chapter XIX.] MISSOURI AND ARKANSAS. I93 

the beds. He then laid in a supply of provisions, hired young 
men to help row, and others to take the horses through by land, 
and, placing his two sick brethren feet to feet in the pirogue, 
started on his journey. The second day all the provisions were 
found to be spoiled, and they made the rest of their journey without 
food. They, however, reached the appointed place in time for the 
camp-meeting. Neither Burrow nor Carnahan was able to assist. 
Both, indeed, were delirious. 1 One day, after King had preached 
on the text "the harvest is past," a lady in the congregation 
repeated the text and fell shrieking to the ground. Others in- 
stantly fell; then others, until all over the congregation prostrate 
penitents were pleading for mercy. For several days King had 
felt his frame burning with fever; but as both his comrades were 
prostrate, he determined not to acknowledge that he was sick. 
Standing in the midst of this throng of weeping sinners, and try- 
ing to instruct them in the way of salvation, he fainted and fell to 
the ground. He was taken up and borne to one of the camps, 
bled, and put to bed in an unconscious state. There was no more 
preaching at that meeting, and neither of the missionaries was ever 
able to tell how the meeting closed. They were both carried along 
with Carnahan to private houses. King remained delirious eleven 
days, and kept his bed five weeks. 

The hardships of the journey of these two missionaries back to 
Missouri may be taken as a type of what our pioneer preachers 
endured. We have a full account of this journey from both King 
and Burrow, and the narrative is here placed before the reader with 
the greater pleasure because both of these missionaries were among 
the very noblest specimens of true manhood that any church in any 
age ever enrolled among its heroes. 

Dr. Burrow was a man of great physical power. He had a 
compact, heavy, muscular frame, and heavy eyebrows. His black 
hair grew low down on his forehead, and his accent betrayed just a 
little his German extraction. The working of his mind was like 
the heavy and powerful movements of some ponderous machine, 

1 In this account of the river trip I follow the King manuscript. Burrow's is 
slightly different; but Burrow was delirious or unconscious throughout the trip, and 
wrote from memory long afterward. 



194 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period n. 

His eye and countenance slowly kindled as lie advanced in his ser- 
mons, until at last his homely face grew beautiful with the glow 
of intellect set on fire by the Holy Ghost. 

King was a fine specimen of the pioneer preacher. Trained in 
pioneer work by the Rev. Samuel King, his father, and all his life 
keeping on the frontier, he delighted in hardships and sufferings 
for Jesus with something of the same spirit which the first century 
witnessed in those who earnestly coveted the martyr's crown. He 
closed his career, at last, on the Texas frontier, leaving it as his 
dying testimony that, if he had his life to live over again, he would 
wish it to be just the kind of life which he had already passed 
through. 

When the time came to go back to Missouri, King was still 
unable to travel, and Burrow set out without him. There was an 
appointment for a camp-meeting on the road one hundred miles 
distant. Eighteen young people, most of whom were unconverted, 
mounted their horses and accompanied Burrow to this meeting, 
and almost all of these souls were there blessed. After this camp- 
meeting Burrow resumed his journey. He was now alone, and 
what was worse, his horse was sick ; but we have already seen that 
he never allowed such things to interfere with his work. Placing 
his saddle-bags on his shoulder, and driving his sick horse before 
him, he pursued his journey. Then his horse died, and he plodded 
on afoot, having an appointment one hundred arid fifty miles ahead. 
It was often from twenty-five to thirty miles from one house to the 
next. How he crossed the rivers without a horse, in a land where 
there were neither bridges nor ferries, and where the settlements 
were twenty-five miles apart, is left to conjecture. 

He reached St. Michaels, Missouri, in time for his appointment, 
and there with great joy he grasped by the hand his beloved fellow- 
laborer, the Rev. W. C. Long. But the end was not yet. The 
presbytery was to meet at Finis Ewing's church, near Booneville, 
Missouri. He and Long, placing their baggage on Long's horse, 
both started afoot. On the way Mr. Burrow was again taken very 
sick, and was unable to proceed. Not willing to miss a meeting 
of presbytery, Mr. Long, although he believed Burrow to be in a 
dying condition, continued his journey. But Burrow's work was 



Chapter XIX.] MISSOURI AND ARKANSAS. 195 

not done. He recovered partially, borrowed a horse, and was at 
the appointed place in time for the presbyterial meeting. Being 
unable to sit up, he was carried to Finis Ewing's house, and cared 
for until his recovery by that queen of nurses, u Aunt Peggy" 
Ewing. 

In the meantime King recovered sufficiently to sit on his horse. 
Worn with sickness, and all alone, he set out on the long journey 
"to presbytery." His first stretch of houseless wilderness was 
thirty miles across. It was dark when he closed that dreary ride, 
and he was burning with fever. At every house he was urged not 
to try to travel while in that condition; but, says he, "I was going 
to presbytery." The fifth night the family where he stayed were 
all sick — no one able to sit up. King himself was in a raging 
fever, and too weak to climb up to the loft where the fodder was 
kept, but he managed to give his horse some corn ; and then, being 
wet to the skin from rain and crossing rivers, he spread his blanket 
before the fire and passed the night in sleep. Toward morning he 
awoke greatly improved, his fever all gone. He says that he felt 
willing to die for the sake of reaching that meeting of presbytery, 
and there representing the interests of the destitute people along 
the banks of the White and the Arkansas rivers. Indeed, by some 
means the report had reached the members of McGee Presbytery 
that he was dead; and when he entered the house in which the 
presbytery was sitting, the Rev. R. D. Morrow was on his feet read- 
ing a preamble and resolutions in relation to the death of their 
beloved brother, the Rev. R. D. King. When they saw him enter, 
the whole presbytery rushed to meet him with tears of joy and 
exclamations of thanksgiving to God. 

The Rev. Hiram McDaniel, of Kentucky, spent the winter of 
that same year (1823) as missionary in Arkansas. He found trials, 
too. Once when he swam the Arkansas River his horse was all 
covered with ice before he reached the farther shore. Such things 
came in as a matter of course in the work of these pioneer preach- 
ers, not only in that day but for many years afterward. 

On the fourth Thursday in May, 1824, according to the order 
of the synod at its preceding session, the Arkansas Presbytery was 
constituted in the house of John Craig, in Independence County. 



196 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period 11. 

Robert Stone, one of the men appointed to assist in the organiza- 
tion, was absent. The ministers who were present were John Car- 
nahan, W. C. L,ong, and William Henry. They lived at great dis- 
tances from each other, but that was the usual state of things in 
the new presbyteries. They at once turned their attention to rais- 
ing up a home supply of preachers. There were four candidates 
for the ministry to begin with. Prayer, beseeching God to call 
more men to preach the gospel, made part of the business of every 
meeting of that little presbytery in the wilderness. 

At the time for the second meeting of this presbytery, in the 
fall of 1824, a quorum was not present, but Andrew Buchanan pre- 
sented himself to the committee as a candidate for the ministry. 
He afterward became a leading preacher, and his name fills 
a large place to-day in the history of our church in Arkansas. 
From 1824 until he was an old man he was an active missionary 
among the Arkansas people. An old lady who long knew him 
and held him in very high esteem said to me : ( ' He did 11' t preach 
at all ; he just talked as if he were speaking to little children, and 
made every thing so plain. But I tell you Uncle John 1 preached. " 
A natural, simple manner was a rare thing in those days of pulpit 
thunder. 

In the spring of 1825 the Arkansas Presbytery again failed to 
hold its regular session, as no quorum was present. The following 
autumn a similar failure occurred for the same reason. Several 
probationers were ready for licensure. It was a distressing case, 
and was brought before the synod. The synod sought to remedy 
the trouble by extending the bounds of Arkansas Presbytery far 
into Missouri, so as to include the homes of several preachers of 
that State. A quorum was thus secured, and licensures and ordina- 
tions followed. 

By this extension of the bounds of Arkansas Presbytery several 
names were placed on its roll which do not belong to the history of 
the church in that State. Robert Sloan, however, who lived and 
died in Missouri, and who for a while held his membership in 
Arkansas Presbytery, did labor nobly as a missionary among the 

1 The Rev. John Buchanan was familiarly spoken of as " Uncle John," and the 
Rev. Andrew Buchanan as " Uncle Buck." 



Chapter XIX.] MISSOURI AND ARKANSAS. 197 

people of Arkansas. Once while traveling in that territory his 
horse died; bnt he was more fortunate in this emergency than 
Reuben Burrow had been in similar circumstances. The people 
remounted him, and he went on his way rejoicing. Judge Bwing's 
excellent little volume of ' ' Historical Memoirs ' ' contains a biog- 
raphy of .Mr. Sloan. 

At the meeting of Arkansas Presbytery in the spring of 1826, 
Jesse M. Blair, J. H. Black, W. W. Stevenson, and Andrew Buch- 
anan were all licensed to preach. In the fall meeting that year 
J. A. Cornwall and W. W. Stevenson were ordained. Black and 
Blair were ordained the following spring. In the records of this 
presbytery for 1827 there is an item characteristic of the men and 
the times. The Rev. James H. Black, who had been appointed to 
one of the oldest circuits, reported his failure to carry out the 
appointment, giving this as his reason: a Macedonian cry from the 
new settlements on Red River, where the people had no preaching 
of any kind, had greatly touched his heart. He therefore left his 
old circuit, where there were some other preachers of other churches, 
and spent his whole time in the newer and more destitute field. 
He said the success of that work had convinced him that the call 
came from God, and he hoped his brethren would excuse his failure 
to comply with their order. He was excused, ( ' Red River circuit ' ' 
established, and in a few more years we find Red River Presbytery 
organized. 

.In the Minutes of the Arkansas Presbytery the boundaries of 
the congregations are defined. These boundaries were frequently 
as large as a whole county. In some instances, indeed, a circuit 
was established exclusively within the limits of a single congrega- 
tion. Of course the meetings were held in private houses. Dur- 
ing this first period there seem to have been no meeting-houses in 
the territory. 

In 1827 Arkansas Presbytery called on all the churches to unite 
in a day of fasting and of prayer to the great Head of the Church 
for more ministers to be called and sent into that needy field. 
There were four immense circuits in the Territory, yet the mission- 
aries did not reach one half of the destitute. Camp-meetings and 
circuit appointments were here, as everywhere else, the chief reli- 



198 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period 11. 

ance for supplying the country with the gospel. At least once a 
year every congregation was to be examined on theology (the cate- 
chism) by one of the ordained ministers. This universal custom 
of all our presbyteries in that day was not forgotten in Arkansas. 
Another characteristic item appears on the records of this presby- 
tery. An order was passed requiring every minister to. preach to 
each church which he visited one sermon on "the support of the 
ministry," and report results to the presbytery. At the next meet- 
ing five reported that they had not complied with the order. One 
who reported compliance said that the people on his circuit had 
pledged sixty-eight dollars and fifty cents for this purpose. An- 
other reported that he complied with the order, and that the people 
on his circuit all said they could not pay any thing for preaching. 

In 1827 all the country around what is now Cane Hill College, 
Washington County, was opened to white settlers, the Osage In- 
dians having sold their lands and moved farther west. A goodly 
number of the Crystal Hill people moved to this new field, and 
among them were two Cumberland Presbyterian preachers, Carna- 
han and Blair, and also two elders. They organized Cane Hill 
church, which has been from that day to this a center of spiritual 
power for all Arkansas. It soon "swarmed," and the new hive 
was called Salem, which still lives and works for Jesus. 

Before the Crystal Hill people reached Cane Hill, another Cum- 
berland Presbyterian family had settled there. This was James 
Buchanan and his household. Around the Pyatts, the Buchanans, 
and the Blairs clusters a large part of the history of the Cumber- 
land Presbyterian church in that field. 

One thing about Cane Hill congregation deserves to be specially 
mentioned — the large number of noble ministers it has sent 
forth, and the very high positions of usefulness which these 
ministers have filled. Among its converts are found not only min- 
isters, but noble men in other callings, as, for example, Prof. A. 
H. Buchanan, of Cumberland University. Many of our large 
churches never send out any preachers. Numbers and wealth do 
not constitute spiritual power. Alas, no! oftener do they co-exist 
with a godless worldliness which causes parents to shrink from the 
thought of giving their sons to be preachers. 



Chapter XIX.] 



Missouri and Arkansas. 199 



Cane Hill church founded Cane Hill College, stamping upon it 
the image of its own deep spirituality, which that institution still 
bears and impresses on its pupils. A school for Jesus— what a 

precious thing it is! 

"Not more than one third of the people of Arkansas have any 
opportunity to hear the gospel," » said a writer in 1831. "There 
are only three Sabbath-schools in the Territory," he adds. He 
pleads with the Cumberland Presbyterian church not to send men 
Bast, where other churches are supplying the people with the word 
of life, but to follow up the great wave of western emigrants. At 
the close of the period ending in 1829, when the Cumberland Pres- 
byterian General Assembly was organized, Arkansas was still a 
sparsely settled territory, with wide areas between the settlements, 
and with the Indians still on the soil. 

There were also two desperate bands of robbers in Washington 
County, of this Territory, and many of the pioneer families, and 
especially the noble women whose husbands traveled as mission- 1 
aries, lived in constant dread of these desperadoes. These robber 
bands were especially troublesome about Cane Hill. All efforts to 
reach them through the courts failed. Finally, after whole families, 
including little children, had been murdered, a vigilance committee 
took the matter in hand and made quick work of the whole busi- 
ness. To this committee the Rev. Andrew Buchanan gave his 
hearty support. There was no other way to rid the country of 
these robbers. 

There are many traditions concerning Andrew Buchanan and 
his adventures. A cool, fearless hero; never excited, never losing 
self-possession, never shrinking from any duty however hard, he 
was well fitted for the field in which his lot was cast. Two of his 
favorite sayings are still quoted in Arkansas. One was, c J I take 
no more trouble on my hands than I can kick off at my heels;" 
the other, "I never let my feelings stick out far enough for people 
to tramp on them." 

One of the pioneer workers in Arkansas camp-meetings, Mrs. 
Mary Marshall, formerly Mrs. Moore, died in Williamson County, 
Tennessee, in 1886. She and her husband settled in Arkansas in 

1 Religions and Literary Intelligencer, May 12, 1S31 



2oo Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period n. 

1822. Both were converted in one of the early camp-meetings in 
that Territory, and from that day on were very active in all the 
meetings within fifty miles of their home. Mrs. Marshall fur- 
nished me several incidents illustrating the eminent piety of our 
first Arkansas preachers. On one occasion she and others were 
talking to the Rev. Guilford Pylant about religion. It was at 
night after services. So absorbed were they in this spiritual com- 
munion that the day began to break before they noticed how long 
the conference had been protracted. Mrs. Marshall says Mr. 
Pylant was always "in the Spirit." He is one of the surviving 
pioneer preachers of Arkansas. 

At another time the Arkansas Presbytery held its meeting in 
Mrs. Marshall's parlor. After the presbytery adjourned those who 
remained, Andrew Buchanan among the rest, engaged in religious 
conversation. In a short time the whole assembly was so filled 
with religious ecstasy that the house rang with loud shouts of 
" Glory to God." Such was the confidence which our young 
preachers had in this woman's piety and good sense that they even 
went to her to read, for her criticism, the trial sermons which they 
prepared for presbytery. 



Chapter XX.] CLOSE OF SECOND PERIOD. 201 



CHAPTER XX 



THE COLLEGE— THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY—SUMMARY 
OF WHAT HAD BEEN DONE. 

The old order changeth, yielding place to new, 
And God fulfills himself in many ways. 

— Tennyson. 

THE Cumberland Presbyterian church at an early period in its 
history recognized the necessity of establishing a school for 
the education of its preachers. When there were but three pres- 
byteries this question was discussed in each of them. In 1822 
commissioners from the Blk, the Nashville, and the Tennessee 
presbyteries met in convention to consider this subject. Again in 
1823 a more vigorous discussion of the subject ended in the deter- 
mination to bring the matter before the synod with a view to 
co-operation in one school for the whole church. 

At the meeting of the General Synod, in Princeton, Kentucky, 
in 1825, tne final P lan f° r tne contemplated school was adopted, 
and commissioners appointed to receive bids and locate the institu- 
tion. It was to have a department of arts and also a department 
of theology. The highest judicature of the church was to be its 
board of trustees. The whole country was at that time taking up 
with Fellenberg's theory of manual-labor schools, and the synod 
caught the infection and resolved that their college should be con- 
ducted on that plan. 

A novel spectacle greets us here. The synod, composed of all 
the ministers of the church, prescribes a course of study, selects 
the text-books, and makes a code of by-laws to govern the students; 
more than that, it undertakes to direct in the habits of the stu- 
dents about dress and other personal matters. It prohibits the use 
of feather beds; it requires from every student two or three hours' 
labor daily on the farm : it directs also about the management of 



202 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period n. 

the farm and the boarding-house. That race of hardy pioneers, 
brought up in a life of hardships on the frontier, undertook to 
train up another generation of men for the same rough work. 

The synod also directed the commissioners to connect a print- 
ing establishment with this manual-labor enterprise, and to pro- 
vide thereby for a church paper. It is manifest from all their 
proceedings at this time that the members of the synod expected 
large results from the cultivation of the farm by the students, but 
they were not wholly forgetful of the necessity for endowment. 
Agents in large numbers were appointed to solicit donations and 
remit to the commissioners, but no salary or other compensation 
was to be given to these agents. 

The history of this college is reserved for another chapter. It 
was located at Princeton, Kentucky. The Rev. Franceway R. 
Cossitt, D.D., who came to the Cumberland Presbyterian church 
from the Episcopalians, was its first president. He was also the 
first president of the college afterward established at Lebanon, 
Tennessee. His appeals in behalf of education deserve to be col- 
lected in a volume, both as a memorial of a noble life of toil and 
to keep forever ringing in the ears of our people the important 
truths which Dr. Cossitt so earnestly pressed upon their attention — 
truths which will live forever, and which are for all countries and all 
churches, but especially for this young church of the frontier. If 
God, in his providence, raised up and fitted McGready and Ewing 
to lead in a special work for the great West, much more did his 
fatherly care show itself in training up a special leader for the first 
educational work of the church. Bred in New England, taught 
in her best schools, graduated in one of her best colleges, brought 
to Christ according'to the Cumberland Presbyterian ideas of "time 
and place" and conscious conversion, trained in a regular theo- 
logical school, drilled, too, in the work of teaching, Cossitt came 
West and cast in his lot with this new church. From that day 
until the day of his death he was an active worker for our educa- 
tional enterprises. 

The last days of the General Synod were chiefly occupied with 
the various questions which the college originated, but there were 
also several minor matters which received attention, among other 



Chapter XX.] CLOSE OF SECOND PERIOD. 203 

things the publication of a hymn book for the church. The Rev. 
William Harris, on his own responsibility, had brought out a little 
book of hymns' suited to camp-meetings, but the synod wanted a 
larger book and appointed men to prepare one. It also made 
arrangements to publish the lectures which the Rev. Finis Bwing 
had delivered in his theological school in Missouri. A college, a 
theological school, a church paper, and the publication of books 
were all partially provided for by the synod before the formation 
of a General Assembly. 

The expediency of organizing a General Assembly began to be 
discussed as early as 1823. ^ ne question was debated and deferred 
at each successive meeting of the synod for five years. Two things 
seem to have caused delay. First, some members feared that the 
expansion of the church when proclaimed and acknowledged by 
the organization of an Assembly would cause some of our people 
to rely on their numbers and forget the true source of all their 
strength. Finis Ewing especially feared this, and while his fears 
did not lead him to oppose the steps of progress which it was neces- 
sary to take, yet at every such advance his voice of warning was 
heard pleading with his brethren to keep humble at God's feet and 
to remember that all their power came from him. There seems 
also to have been a lingering hesitation even yet about accepting 
the situation of a permanently organized separate denomination. 
A conference with commissioners from the Tennessee Synod of the 
Presbyterian church was looked to with strong hopes by some, but 
it ended without giving any ground to expect reunion. This 
conference originated with the Presbyterians and only proposed 
friendly relations, not organic union. The right of a synod to 
enter into such negotiations was, however, questioned by the Pres- 
byterian General Assembly and the whole matter was dropped. 

All of the preachers had to ride on horseback to attend the 
annual meetings of the General Synod. Daniel Patton, who is 
one of the three surviving members (1887) of that synod gives an 
interesting account of its last meeting. He had traveled seven 
hundred miles to attend, and traveling expenses had become a 
burden. He, therefore, laid ten dollars on the clerk's table to start 
a permanent fund, the interest of which should meet such traveling 



204 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period n. 

expenses. His example was followed by many others. Four 
hundred dollars for this fund was secured at that meeting. But the 
requisite number of presbyteries sent up their responses in favor 
of organizing a General Assembly, It was, therefore, no longer 
necessary that all the preachers of the church should attend 
every meeting of its highest judicature. So responses to Mr. Pat- 
ton's proposition were never carried beyond the four hundred 
dollars. A very strong feeling in favor of a delegated synod, and 
no higher court, existed, but those maintaining this view were 
outvoted. The organization was to be Presbyterian in all its 
details. 

Some of the minor rules and transactions of the General Synod 
deserve to be noticed before we pass to the next period. There 
was, for instance, a standing order requiring every presbytery to 
furnish from time to time a full history of its work and progress, 
to be filed with the stated clerk of the synod. The Rev. David 
Foster was appointed general superintendent to see that this rule 
was complied with. While many of these histories are lost, there 
are enough of them still in existence to render valuable aid in the 
preparation of this volume. Why could not this old rule be 
revived, and precious material be thus preserved? Not a mere 
digest of ecclesiastical records, but a photograph of the work in all 
the churches of the presbytery is what is needed. The synod, in 
its official action, took high ground on the subject of temperance. 
It placed itself on record as in favor of all the great benevolent 
enterprises of the day. It was recognized in all the West as fore- 
most in work for the Bible Society and the Tract Society. 

New presbyteries were organized from time to time, and when 
the General Synod finally adjourned sine die, there were eighteen 
of these presbyteries. The date of the order for the organization 
of each, and a list of the original members, are here given: 

Nashville, 1 1813: Hugh Kirkpatrick, Thomas Calhoun, David Foster, 

D. W. McLin. 
Elk, 1813: William McGee, Samuel King, James B. Porter, Robert 

Bell, Robert Donnell. 

1 The Nashville Presbytery was what was left of the original Cumberland Pres- 
bytery after Elk and Logan were stricken off in 1S13. It was still called the Cum- 



Chapter XX.] CLOSE OF SECOND PERIOD 205 

Logan, 1S13: Finis E wing, William Harris, Alexander Chapman, Will- 
iam Barnett. 
McGee, 1819: Green P. Rice, Daniel Buie, R. D. Morrow, John Car- 

nahan. 
Anderson, 1821: William Henry, John Barnett, D. W. McLin, Aaron 

Shelby, W. M. Hamilton, James Johnston, William Barnett. 
Lebanon, 1821: Thomas Calhoun, William Bumpass, John Provine, J. 

L. Dillard, Daniel Gossedge, Samuel McSpeddin, James McDon- 

nold. 
Tennessee, 182 1: A. Alexander, Albert Gibson, R. Donnell, James 

Stuart, James Moore, John Molloy. 
Illinois, 1822: Green P. Rice, D. W. McLin, John M. Berry, W. M. 

Hamilton. 
Tombigbee, 1823: Robert Bell, John Molloy, John C. Smith, John 

Forbes. 
Arkan#as, 1S23: W. C. Long, William Henry, John Carnahan, Robert 

Stone. 
Hopewell, 1824: William Barnett, Richard Beard, Samuel Harris, John 

C. Smith. 
Alabama, 2 1824: William Moore, Benjamin Lockhart, John Williams, 

J. W. Dickey. 
Indiana, 1825: Aaron Shelby, H. A. Hunter, A. Downey, William 

Lynn. 
Barnett, 1827: Samuel King, R. D. Morrow, Daniel Patton, Henry 

Renick. 
Knoxville, 1827: George Donnell, S. M. Aston, Abner W. Lansden, 

William Smith. 
St. Louis, 1828: F. M. Braly, John R. Brown, John W. McCord, John 

H. Garvin. 
Princeton, 1828: F. R. Cossitt, David Lowry, John W. Ogden, James 

Johnston. 
Sangamon, 1828: David Foster, John M. Berry, Thomas Campbell, 

Gilbert Dodds, John Porter. 

The synod resolved to divide itself into four synods preparatory 
to the organization of a General Assembly. These new synods were 
named Missouri, Franklin, Green River, and Columbia. There 
were six presbyteries in Missouri Synod: McGee, Barnett, Sanga- 
mon, Illinois, St. Louis, and Arkansas. Franklin Synod had four 

berland Presbytery till 1814, when its name was changed. Elk, Logan, and Nash- 
ville were the presbyteries composing the first synod. 

2 The order to organize in 1821 failed for waut of a resident quorum. 



206 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period n. 

presbyteries: Nashville, Lebanon, Knoxville, and Hopewell. In 
Green River Synod there were also four presbyteries: Anderson, 
Princeton, Logan, and Indiana; and four in the Columbia Synod, 
viz. : Alabama, Tombigbee, Elk, and Tennessee. The General 
Assembly was to hold its first meeting in Princeton, Kentucky, the 
third Tuesday in May, 1829. Such changes in the Form of Gov- 
ernment as the organization of a General Assembly necessitated 
were made by the synod, and, without any reference to the presby- 
teries, were accepted by common consent, and became part of the 
laws of the church. 

This synodical period, from 1813 to 1829, was one of unsur- 
passed activity and spirituality on the part of our ministry. Tak- 
ing it altogether, the world has never witnessed its equal ; certainly 
the Cumberland Presbyterian church has not witnessed any thing 
like its equal in the two particulars specified. I am sorry to add 
that there are no statistics to show even the number of ministers 
in the church, much less the number of members, at that time. 
There were eighteen presbyteries, and we know who their first 
members were; but what names had been added to their rolls after 
their organization can not now be ascertained. There were thou- 
sands of conversions every year, but God kept that roll; and the 
fear of "counting," which still exists among our people, did not 
cause one single genuine convert to be omitted from the family 
record in our Father's book of life. On Monday, October 27, 1828, 
at Franklin, Tennessee, the General Synod, composed of all the 
ministers of the church and their elders, adjourned to meet no 
more on earth. 



THIRD PERIOD. 



CHAPTER XXII. 
GENERAL SURVEY. 

And now with voices soft, mysterious, low, 

The phantoms whisper round me, and I seem 
To hear life's blended memories come and go 
* In strange ethereal music fitfully. 

— Paul H. Hayne. 

THE third period, from trie meeting of the first General Assem- 
bly in 1829 to tne removal of Cumberland College in 1842, is 
the great transition period in the history of the Cumberland Pres- 
byterian church. It seems proper, before taking up any thorough 
notice of details, to sweep over this period with a sort of general 
survey. 

When the first General Assembly met at Princeton, Kentucky, 
the church extended into only eight States, six of which had be- 
come States since the church was organized. The other two 
States had both acquired large areas of Indian territory since the 
organization of the church, and even in these two older States 
work among the pioneer settlements had constituted a large part 
of our denominational activity, while all the work in the new 
States had from necessity been accomplished by missionary evan- 
gelists. Born on the crest of the great wave of emigration which 
was rolling into the immense western territories, as one after 
another these territories were thrown open to white settlers, this 
church was specially raised up and fitted by a wise Providence for 
pioneer work in this field. The ministry of the new church filled 
this pioneer mission nobly; but the time came when all the circum- 
stances were changed, and Providence pointed to other missions. 

(207) 



208 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period in. 

That period begins with the meeting of the first General Assembly. 
There were still new territories acquired by the nation on the west- 
ern frontier, but there were also many old established communities 
in which our people had churches that needed training. 

There were eighteen presbyteries at the time this period began, 
sixteen of which were represented in the first General Assembly. 
Not one of the preachers who attended this General Assembly had 
ever been a pastor in the true sense of that term. Missionaries 
who had borne great hardships all their lives, who had shown 
themselves ready and willing to suffer for the sake of leading souls 
to Jesus, but had little or no experience in the management of 
financial affairs, found themselves in charge of all the great enter- 
prises of the denomination. It is not to 'be wondered at that they 
made many a blunder in the business department of their transac- 
tions. We know not whether smiles or tears are most called for 
when we see the General Assembly year after year appointing 
agents to travel over all the United States for the college, without 
any salary whatever. Were they not ministers who were thus 
appointed ? Had they not all been thoroughly trained in working 
without any pay? But our smiles turn to admiration when we 
find that the Rev. Matthew Houston Bone, the Rev. Franceway R. 
Cossitt, and the Rev. John W. Ogden did all three comply with 
this appointment made by the first General Assembly, and make 
extensive tours in the interest of the college through half a dozen 
States. We are not surprised, however, to find in their reports the 
next year much more about the number of poor sinners converted 
at their meetings than about the amount of money secured for the 
college. 

Much of the business of the General Assembly during this tran- 
sition period had reference to the difficulties and the struggles of 
the college. Another matter of a most embarrassing nature, over 
which there was much trouble, was the church paper. A third 
source of trouble and loss was "the book concern." There were 
also heart-burnings and distress over the case of the R.ev. John 
Barnett, who was financially wrecked while trying to carry on the 
business department of the college under contract with the General 
Assembly. Another source of embarrassment was a difficult and 



Chapter XXI.] GENERAL SURVEY. 20C- 

protracted discussion about the pastoral office. The home mission- 
ary work in Pennsylvania, Texas, Louisiana, and other fields was a 
hopeful feature of the church's progress during this period. 

While the General Assembly uniformly indorsed the American 
Board of Missions, and recommended the churches to contribute to 
that board, it also clung to the theory of having a missionary board 
of its own both for domestic and foreign missions. The General 
Assembly of 1836 resolved to co-operate with the American Board 
in the foreign work. The Cumberland Presbyterian Board of Mis- 
sions, which originated in the second period and continued through 
the third, never had any charter. While voices in favor of a char- 
tered board of foreign missions were heard at every General Assem- 
bly, still no such board was created. The unchartered board was 
considered sufficient. Expecting neither legacies, law-suits, nor 
defalcations, a majority thought a charter unnecessary. All the 
congregations were required to have auxiliary missionary societies, 
tributary to this board. 

At all the General Assemblies during this period the great 
benevolent enterprises of the day received hearty indorsement, and 
the churches were urged to co-operate with them. The Coloniza- 
tion Society and Tract Society seem to have been favorites, though 
the Bible Society, Temperance Society, and Sunday-school Union 
were never forgotten. 

While the General Assembly declared itself in favor of full sta- 
tistical reports from the presbyteries, and, with constantly dimin- 
ishing opposition, resolved at every annual meeting that these 
reports must be sent up, yet up to the close of this period only 
about half the presbyteries complied with the order. There was a 
strong feeling against statistics among some of our best men. The 
first synod to make a full statistical report, accompanied with a 
directory of its ministers, was the Synod of Missouri, in 1836. 

At every General Assembly the reports on the state of religion 
speak of extensive revivals, but do not give full statistics of con- 
versions. At one meeting half the synods sent up statistics. The 
number of conversions in their bounds for that year was a little 
over eight thousand. In 1835 the Committee on the State of 
Religion reported that secularization of the ministry prevailed 



210 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period in. 

to an alarming extent. At two meetings the General Assembly 
held a fast-day in the midst of its sessions, the members gathering 
at six o'clock in the morning for prayer. General fast-days for the 
whole chnrch were twice appointed during this period, and the 
people called on to pray for more men to be called to the ministry. 
Camp-meetings were still universal, and the General Assembly con- 
stantly gave them its official indorsement, and urged the churches 
to hold them. Even in the very few old churches which, after 
the middle of this period, had settled pastors, nobody thought of 
abandoning the camp - meeting. The church papers teem with 
accounts of revivals at these meetings. Nowhere else did the 
preachers of this period appear to such advantage, or preach with 
such power. It was customary to hold the sessions of the church 
judicatures during or immediately preceding a camp-meeting. 

The General Assembly solemnly declared holy living on the 
part of God's people to be greatly needed and sadly lacking. In 
1836 it declared it to be part of the policy of the church for pres- 
byteries to license lay exhorters. It is a pity that the church ever 
departed from that policy. 

It is remarkable how very few appeal cases came up from the 
lower church judicatures, and what a mild nature characterized 
those which did come. The first appeal case was at the fifth Gen- 
eral Assembly, and the question was whether Hiram McDaniel 
belonged to the Princeton or to the Anderson Presbytery. Nor 
were there any appeals or any graver questions during all this 
period. Questions about the right way of appointing elders to 
attend synod were constantly coming up. Occasional memorials 
to abolish the synod were laid on the table, or voted down. 

Two of the early ministers of the church were superannuated 
and in destitution. The General Assembly at every meeting made 
some provisions for these sufferers and their families. For one of 
them it bought a little farm. 

The first part of this period presented few exciting debates. 
There were no great speeches. Oratory found its field in the pul- 
pit, especially at the camp-meetings. The last Assembly of this 
period (184a), however, was more like one of our modern judica- 
tures. There were animated debates and long and earnest speeches 



Chapter XXL] GENERAL SURVEY. 211 

on the question of removing the college from Princeton. Local 
and party feelings made their first decided exhibition in this Assem- 
bly. According to all accounts the speeches in all the former 
sessions were short, and utterly destitute of any ill-feeling. This 
was true even in the discussion of the questions about which it is 
known that there were bitter heart-burnings. The peace and har- 
mony of the church were at that day held in very high esteem. 

In 1833 the General Assembly resolved that it would be a grat- 
ifying thing to have the three men who organized our first pres- 
bytery visit all the churches. The Rev. Samuel King, therefore, 
after some preparation, took with him his son, the Rev. R. D. King, 
and started in April, 1834, on the grand tour. His first year was 
spent in the South-west, during which time he aided in organizing 
the Louisiana Presbytery. He reported good meetings all through 
the year. The next General Assembly asked him to continue the 
work, which he did, and reported to the Assembly of 1836. He 
visited Logan, Kentucky, and Knoxville presbyteries, the Creek and 
Cherokee Indians, and the Elyton, Alabama, and Mississippi pres- 
byteries, holding meetings all along the journey. He says that he 
everywhere found the old preachers more zealous than their juniors. 
Several precious revivals and other good results of the mission are 
mentioned. For the whole two years he and his son received com- 
pensation nearly equal to their traveling expenses. 

In 1836 the General Assembly declared that making, selling, or 
giving away ardent spirits was an offense requiring discipline. It 
put on record a declaration about fraternal intercourse with all 
orthodox churches, and directed its preachers to maintain this 
intercourse so far as possible with all God's children. The same 
Assembly formed a society for the purpose of aiding candidates for 
the ministry in securing a thorough education. 

Owing to the financial embarrassments into which the college 
was plunged at the very beginning of its career, the first General 
Assembly decided to defer indefinitely the scheme of establishing a 
theological department in that college. The church, however, was 
clamorous for a theological school, and the General Assembly of 
1834 submitted the question to the presbyteries whether it would 
be better to have one school under Assemblv ausoices, or several 



212 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period in. 

schools under synodical control. The replies from the presbyteries 
were not in harmony: some wanted presbyterial, and some synod- 
ical schools, and some one school under the Assembly. Others 
thought that the time for action had not yet arrived. Under this 
state of things the whole question was again postponed. The Gen- 
eral Assembly of 1838 resolved to try the plan of holding biennial 
instead of annual sessions ; therefore no Assembly met in 1839. 

During this period the number of synods in the church grew 
from four to twelve, and the number of presbyteries from eighteen 
to fifty-three. The period began under the dispensation of mis- 
sionary evangelists; it closed with a recognized pastoral system 
thoroughly indorsed by church authority, but not yet established 
in the hearts of the lay members. This was in some respects the 
darkest epoch of the church's history, the war period itself not 
excepted. The darkness arose from troubles over the college, the 
paper, and the publication of books, and from the transition from 
missions to pastorates. A list of the new presbyteries established 
during this period, with the dates when they are first mentioned on 
the rolls of the Assembly, is here given: Kentucky, 1830; Ely ton, 
Forked Deer, Hatchie, Mississippi, Vandalia, and Wabash, 1832; 
Lexington, New Lebanon, Obion, Pennsylvania, Salt River, and 
White River, 1833; Jackson and Red River, 1834; Louisiana and 
Richland, 1835; Chapman, King, Rushville, Shiloh, Talladega, 
and Wolf River, 1836; Athens, Hiwassee, Mackinaw, Neosho, 
Ohio, and Uniontown — now Union (Pennsylvania) — 1837; Oxford, 
Texas, and Washington, 1838; Columbus and Union (West Tennes- 
see Synod), 1840; Charity Hall, Foster, McGready, and Memphis, 
1841; Ewing (Illinois), Mound Prairie, and Ozark, 1842. Several 
of these, however, were not new presbyteries, but new names for 
old ones. The new synods added in 1832 were Mississippi, Illinois, 
and Western District, afterward called West Tennessee. In 1834 
Arkansas Synod was created, and the name of Missouri Synod 
changed to Washington, but the original name was soon after 
resumed. Union (now Alabama) Synod was organized in 1836; 
Indiana in 1837; and Pennsylvania, McHaca, and Middle Tennes- 
see in 1838. The name McHaca was afterward changed to Sanga- 
mon. The Franklin Synod was dissolved, and its presbyteries 



Chapter XXI.] GENERAL SURVEY. 213 

attached to other synods. Finis Ewing, David Foster, David W. 
McLin, William Barnett, Alexander Chapman, and H. F. Delany 
died during this period, and the Rev. Samuel King just at its close. 

One thing is fully manifest from the study of this whole period: 
At the bottom of all the financial trouble about the printing of 
books, about the paper, about the college, and about John Barnett' s 
embarrassments and losses, lay one and the same foundation of 
rottenness — the credit system. Let the church heed the danger 
signals which its past experience has raised so high over the 
wrecks of its early enterprises. 

The same period furnishes another danger signal demanding 
present and perpetual attention: No body as large as the General 
Assembly is competent to manage financial enterprises. A small 
board of experts selected for this special work may do so; no Gen- 
eral Assembly in any church has ever done so successfully. During 
this period the whole church, through its General Assembly, en- 
tered into half a dozen or more business contracts, making solemn 
pledges which it did not and could not keep. Trouble and disaster 
came from every one of these contracts. The inconsistency of 
attempting the direct management of financial enterprises by so 
large a body is well illustrated in the history of the church's first 
general Board of Missions. This board was composed of all the 
ministers of the church. Among them were a considerable num- 
ber of men who were opposed to foreign missions; yet they helped 
to manage our first foreign mission! 

What then is the conclusion? "Look ye out seven men" fit 
for such business, and leave its management to them. What if 
they prove false ? Then the immorality, not the business manage- 
ment, is a fit subject for ecclesiastical reckoning. Unfitness for the 
trust may call for a change of men, but it never justifies an Assem- 
bly in taking into its own hands the financial direction of any busi- 
ness enterprise. 



2i4 Cumberland Presbyterian History cPerioj in. 



CHAPTER XXII 



THE FIRST CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIAN COLLEGE. 

"Si monumentum queris circumspice." 

A CHURCH college necessarily has two histories — one outward 
and ecclesiastical, the other internal and domestic. The first 
Cumberland Presbyterian college has been very fortunate in the 
writer of its outward history, but much of the material for a record 
of its internal workings has forever perished. Dr. Richard Beard's 
article, secured by Dr. J. Berrien I^indsley, and published by Dr. M. 
B. De Witt in the Theological Medium, April, 1876, is a full and reli- 
able presentation of the official and ecclesiastical side of the history 
of this college. With all the official records of the college and the 
General Assembly to guide him, besides a personal connection with 
most of the events he recorded, there could not have been found a 
more accurate historian than Dr. Beard. One of his dates is no 
doubt a misprint. It was not 1844, but 1842, when the General 
Assembly forever severed its connection with Cumberland College. 

The antecedents of the action establishing the college were 
given in a former chapter. The following reasons were urged in 
favor of a manual labor institution: Health will be promoted, econ- 
omy will be secured, the poor will have a chance for a collegiate 
education, and the ministry will thus be trained for that life of 
hardships which pioneer missions call for. 

The commissioners appointed by the synod in 1825 to arrange 
for the location and establishment of the college visited Hopkins- 
ville, Elkton, Russellville, and Princeton. The synod felt obliged 
to locate the school in Kentucky. The people of Princeton made 
the largest bid ($28,000) in subscriptions, and the college was 
located there, and a board of trust chartered. A large farm was 
bought on a credit, tools and stock were bought with borrowed 
money; buildings were erected on a credit. "Here beginneth our 



Chapter XXII.] CUMBERLAND COLLEGE. 215 

morning lesson. ' ' Less than one fourth of the subscriptions made 
by the people of Princeton were ever paid. Thus the institution 
was born in embarrassments. The conditions on which the loca- 
tion at Princeton was made were thus violated at the beginning, 
and the church began immediately to regret that some other place 
had not been selected. There were many strong men in the 
church who from the first seriously doubted the fitness of the loca- 
tion at Princeton. Prominent among these was the Rev. Robert 
Donnell. He predicated his doubts solely on the weakness of the 
Cumberland Presbyterian church in that town. He said that a 
temporary interest aroused among members of other churches by 
local considerations could not be relied on for a long struggle. To 
all this he gave utterance before Princeton was selected, and while 
different locations were under discussion. The results showed that 
Donnell' s doubts were well founded. A few men of other churches 
were true helpers to the last, but there was lacking that strong 
local support which every college imperatively requires. Cumber- 
land College was my own alma mater, and for half of my lifetime 
Princeton was the dearest spot to me on the earth. No community 
anywhere could have shown more kindness to the students. The 
trouble did not lie in that quarter. 

The college opened on the first of March, 1826, with six stu- 
dents, but the number soon increased. The large, hewed log house, 
which afterward was Dr. Beard's residence, now burned, was the 
college building. Dormitories, some good and some rude, were on 
the other side of the street. The refectory was a little nearer the 
town. Before the institution was a year old the farm was mort- 
gaged to raise money to meet the most pressing debts. In 1831 
debts had accumulated until the institution was about to be sold. 
Several agents had been sent out, but very few of them secure4 
any thing more than traveling expenses. The Rev. John W. 
Ogden, who canvassed the churches in South Alabama, paid over 
to the trustees seven hundred dollars, but that was ' ( only a drop in 
the bucket. ' ' The others altogether paid just seventy-eight dollars 
and forty-seven cents. Debts to the amount of twelve thousand 
dollars were then pressing. The case was pronounced hopeless. 
When the General Assembly met that year, many people thought 



216 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period in. 

it would be better to abandon that enterprise, and start a college in 
some community which, had never arrayed the prejudices of the 
church against it. 

The Rev. John Barnett and the Rev. Aaron Shelby, both pos- 
sessed of considerable estates and both warm friends of the college 
and of its location also, made a proposition to lease the institution 
for four years. Their proposition was accepted. Its terms and con- 
ditions are here briefly stated: (i) The lessees assumed all the debts 
and all the expenses both of college and refectory ; (2) They were 
authorized to charge eighty dollars a year for boarding and tuition, 
instead of sixty dollars, the former price. There were four condi- 
tions: First, It was stipulated that the individual members of the 
General Assembly should give their notes for $2,400, due in one 
and two years. Second, It was agreed that the General Assembly 
should keep an agent constantly in the field soliciting aid for the 
college. Third, All the net profits from the church paper were to 
be given to the lessees. (This item was changed afterward.) 
Fourth, All the assets of the institution of every description, and 
all its net income, were to be given to the lessees. After this con- 
tract was entered into, the trustees, whose chartered existence and 
general oversight of the college still continued, agreed to extend 
the lease to Barnett and Shelby to twelve years in payment for a 
large brick building to be erected by them. They erected the 
building which was so long the chief home of the institution. 

The details of the trouble and complaints which grew out of 
this lease would be neither interesting nor profitable. Shelby was 
shrewd enough to get his head out of the halter while the rope was 
slack. Young, who bought out Shelby, died of cholera, and the 
trustees bought his half of the lease. Both the lessees and the 
General Assembly failed in part of their pledges. The lessees 
never paid off the debts against the institution, and the General 
Assembly failed to pay the $2,400 pledged to the lessees. Crimina- 
tion and recrimination followed. The cholera visited Princeton 
year after year. There was great dissatisfaction among the stu- 
dents with the labor requirement, and with the refectory These 
things combined to make Barnett' s connection with the college 
disastrous to him. Some thought the General Assembly ought to 



Chapter XXIL] CUMBERLAND COLLEGE. 217 

indemnify him, but a majority voted against such a proposition. 
Many hard feelings and heart-burnings there were, but it is need- 
less to follow the subject further. 

When the General Assembly of 1836 met, Barnett proposed to 
surrender his lease; and declared himself unable, by reason of many 
losses, to carry out his contracts. The General Assembly then 
asked the trustees to form a joint-stock company. They failed to 
do so, and bitter complaints were made in the church paper about 
this failure. Some of the trustees replied, representing the condi- 
tion and prospects of the college as utterly hopeless. The General 
Assembly of 1837, which met at Princeton, urged the formation of 
the joint-stock company. The trustees replied that the property 
of the college was all under the hammer, and no joint-stock com- 
pany was possible. Thereupon various members of the Assembly 
agreed to become stockholders, and these members, aided by a few 
citizens of Princeton, formed the company and Barnett surrendered 
his lease. 

This company was to be independent of the Assembly and to 
relieve the church of all responsibility for the debts of the institu- 
tion. It had its own chartered board of trust chosen by itself. 
The main consideration in view of which the Assembly agreed to 
surrender all control of the institution and all title to its property 
of every description was that the Association should pay off all 
the debts against the college. A two years' breathing spell was 
gained by the new arrangement and money enough was secured 
to stave off the most pressing debts, but not enough to liquidate 
them. 

An Episcopalian minister was placed in the faculty, and people 
thought it was through his influence that the new board of direct- 
ors began to talk about transferring the college to the Episcopal 
church. To the General Assembly in 1840 the college authorities 
reported their determination to transfer the college to some other 
church unless that Assembly would make reliable provisions for 
endowment. They told how much the people of Princeton had 
done for the institution, and lectured the Assembly about its fail- 
ures. A new plan was then adopted. On condition that all the 
property, real and personal, should be transferred back, free from 



2l8 CUMBEKXANQ PRESBYTERIAN HISTORY. [Period III. 

debt, to a board of trust to be appointed by the General Assembly, 
that body undertook to raise an endowment of fifty -five thousand 
dollars. 

In 1841 the college reported that the charter for the new board 
had been secured and that the institution had better patronage. 
The agents reported fifteen thousand dollars subscribed for endow- 
ment. Hopes began to revive. In 1842 the new board reported 
to the General Assembly that the property was not turned over to 
them free of debt according to the contract, but was then levied 
on for debts far exceeding in amount what the real estate was 
worth. A large number of those who had subscribed to the 
endowment were at this 'Assembly, and with great unanimity they 
declared themselves absolved from the payment of their subscrip- 
tions. 

The Committee on Education then reported in favor of select- 
ing a more eligible site for the church college. Their report was 
adopted, it is said, with only three dissenting voices. It recom- 
mended the appointment of a commission to receive bids, to locate 
the school, and to make arrangements for buildings and for all 
other necessary things, so as to enable the new college to begin its 
work in September; but with the distinct understanding that the 
commission was forbidden to contract any debts. The General 
Assembly had sufficiently tested the credit system, and was thor- 
oughly sick of being in debt. After this motion was carried, it 
was resolved to allow Princeton also to put in its bid. Other and 
different statements concerning this final action have been pub- 
lished, but the original records of the General Assembly are fol- 
lowed in this account. The removal of the college had long been 
spoken of, and for some time had been distinctly foreseen by lead- 
ing men of the church. 

The commission met in Nashville, July 1, 1842. It was com- 
posed of the ablest and purest men of the church, among them 
Robert Donnell, Reuben Burrow, and James B. Porter. The bid of 
Lebanon, which was by far the best, was accepted, and the school 
was located there. The history of this college belongs to another 
chapter, but one item deserves to be put on record here. Every 
dollar of Lebanon's bid was promptly paid. When the commis- 



Chapter XXII.] CUMBERLAND COLLEGE. 2ig 

sion met a vigorous protest from the Cumberland College Associa- 
tion against the attempt to remove the college from Princeton was 
presented. 

To the next General Assembly, May, 1843, the commissioners 
made their report, announcing that they had located the college 
at Lebanon, Wilson County, Tennessee, and that the school was 
already in successful operation. This report referred to the remon- 
strance of Cumberland College Association against the removal of 
the college from Princeton, but declared that since ' ' the General 
Assembly had decided on a removal of the college, and appointed 
commissioners to locate it, the Association's remonstrance, unac- 
companied by any proposition or any guarantee that the institution 
would be disenthralled from its pecuniary embarrassments, did not 
present sufficient reasons to the commissioners to justify their 
departure from the instructions of the General Assembly." 

It set forth four reasons which had influenced the Assembly to 
provide for the removal of the college : First, Many had been led to 
regard the location at Princeton unfavorable because less than one 
fourth of the subscription originally made by the citizens of that 
town had been paid. Second, During several years after the loca- 
tion of the college at Princeton, agents appointed by the General 
Assembly had traveled in different directions soliciting and receiv- 
ing donations. An impression had gone abroad that a large 
amount had been received, and this impression, though to some 
extent erroneous, had, when viewed in connection with the con- 
tinued pecuniary embarrassments of the college, created in many 
minds a prejudice against the location. Third, The report declared 
that the disastrous failure to relieve the institution of debt by leas- 
ing it to individuals, and its continued and augmented indebted- 
ness in spite of all measures for its relief, had done much to alien- 
ate the minds and feelings of the people from Princeton as a suita- 
ble location for the college. Fourth, The final effort to relieve the 
institution from its embarrassment by the formation of the Cum- 
berland College Association was also described, and the failure of 
this effort, the report said, had tended still more to discourage the 
church with regard to the success of the college at Princeton. 

The commissioners then gave their reasons for selecting Leb- 



22o Cumberland Presbyterian History [Period in. 

anon as u a more eligible site ' ' for tlie cliurch college. Trie citi- 
zens of that town proposed the erection of a large and commodions 
edifice for the school. Lebanon was known to be a healthful 
place, and was one of the most flourishing towns in the State. A 
large number of its citizens were intelligent and energetic members 
of the Cumberland Presbyterian church, who were interested in 
the college and able to help it. The people generally were well 
disposed toward the church, and in Wilson and adjoining counties 
there was a strong Cumberland Presbyterian influence. The soci- 
ety of Lebanon was refined and moral; its people were hospitable; 
dissipation was banished from the town. 

The Lebanon people had promised to build an edifice two 
stories high and one hundred feet long; but this report informed 
the General Assembly that the building actually erected was 
" three stories high, one hundred and ten feet long, and forty feet 
wide," conveniently constructed of substantial materials, and cov- 
ered with cedar shingles, and that "the comb of the roof" was 
about fifty-five feet from the foundation, and the highest part of 
the dome seventy-five feet. This building, the report said, was to 
be completed in July. There were then forty-five students in 
attendance. The trustees had made arrangements by which young 
men preparing for the ministry might be educated without the 
payment of tuition. 

The report explained that the General Assembly did not have or 
claim to have any right or title to the incorporated powers or privi- 
leges, or the property of Cumberland College Association, or con- 
template the removal of any of these. It said that the Assembly's 
trustees, an incorporated body entirely distinct from the Cumber- 
land College Association, held, and were intended to hold, the 
endowment of the college, of which the interest alone could be 
used. All that was understood or intended by the removal of the 
college was the appropriation of this endowment at another place. 
The report expressed the opinion that the General Assembly had 
the right u to direct the application of the endowment to such 
place as the college might be removed to, ' ' but suggested that for 
the sake of peace subscribers who had pledged money to the 
endowment fund should be allowed to pay it for the use of either 



Chapter XXII.] CUMBERLAND COLLEGE. 221 

the college at Princeton or the one at Lebanon, at the election of 
such subscribers. It also declared that, should the General Assem- 
bly desire to endow a college at Princeton, the commissioners were 
assured that the friends and patrons of the Lebanon school would 
make no objection to any equitable arrangement; but denied that 
the resolves of former General Assemblies to raise an endowment 
for Cumberland College were legally binding on the Assembly then 
sitting or on the church. 

The ground taken by the friends of Princeton was that the 
General Assembly had no power to sever its connection with the 
college at Princeton, and that that connection still existed. They 
presented these views in a communication to the General Assembly. 
The decision was against them, the vote being thirty-six to twenty- 
eight. This decision is embodied in the report of the Committee 
on Education, to which this question was referred, and of which 
Richard Beard was chairman. After declaring that the committee 
' ■ entered into the investigation with a settled determination most 
rigidly to follow truth and justice to whatever decision their con- 
sciences and their judgment might be conducted," this report goes 
on to say that, after an elaborate review of the facts, the committee 
but yielded to the overwhelming weight of these facts and the 
clearest convictions of justice in coming to the conclusion that the 
action of the General Assembly in dissolving its connection with 
Cumberland College Association "was not only altogether justifia- 
ble, but imperiously demanded by a proper self-respect and the 
dearest interests of the confiding community for whose good that 
high judicatory is appointed." 

The report continues: 

What loss has that Association sustained by the action of the Gen- 
eral Assembly of 1842? All the debts against it are understood to be 
now paid by the sale of the college property. Not a dollar is pointed 
out to as actually lost by the Association on account of that action. 
The pretended wrongs complained of seem to be a withholding of the 
prospective munificence of the General Assembly from them. 

After declaring that the General Assembly and not the Associa- 
tion was the injured and suffering party, the report closed with two 
resolutions: 



222 



Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period in. 



Resolved, In view of the premises, and in the exercise of the rights 
recognized in the amended charter of 1841, that the General Assembly 
of the Cumberland Presbyterian church, in the exercise of its just 
rights, and in view of the facts which in its opinion at the time fully 
justified that action, did on the 22d day of May, 1842, intentionally dis- 
solve its ecclesiastical connection from Cumberland College Association 
thereby leaving the property and rights of said Association to revert to 
the same, according to the provisions of its charter. 

2. That in view of the rights and interests of all concerned, the pres- 
ent subscribers to the endowing fund be authorized and advised at their 
own discretion to determine the place to which they will pay over their 
subscriptions, they being fully competent to act for themselves. 

Dr. Beard did not vote for his committee's report, but joined in 
the strong protest against it, which was put on record. 

This protest denied that the General Assembly of 1842 did 
sever its connection with Cumberland College Association, or that 
the General Assembly had fulfilled all obligations to that Associ- 
ation. It claimed that a more vigorous effort should have been 
made to endow the college, that the zeal and unanimity of the 
General Assembly in 1840 had led to hopes that had not been 
realized, and that if the members of the Association had expected 
so sudden an abandonment of the institution they would have pre- 
ferred to look elsewhere for endowment and patronage. The 
protest further expressed the belief that the Association had sus- 
tained losses through the General Assembly's action; that "if the 
affairs of the institution had been wound up in 1840 the property 
would not only have paid the debts but returned to the members 
of the Association their original stock." This, however, was 
charged not to any wrong intention on the part of the General 
Assembly, but to hasty and unadvised legislation. The protest 
admitted that the General Assembly had been injured and had 
suffered from its connection with Cumberland College Association, 
but denied that the injury and suffering originated with that 
Association. 

Dr. Beard, and the minority of the Committee on Education, 
had presented a plan for the settlement of these difficulties, in 
which it was proposed to transfer the General Assembly's legal 
powers and responsibilities in relation to Cumberland College, and 



Chapter XXII.] CUMBERLAND CoiXEGE. 223 

the control of the Board of Trustees, to an association composed 
of eleven individuals, and to bind Cumberland College Association 
to relinquish its claims on the General Assembly and to allow the 
moneys subscribed to the endowment to be invested at Princeton 
or Lebanon, or elsewhere, as the donors might direct. The protest 
expressed the solemn belief that this plan would have met the 
views and wishes of the Cumberland College Association, and that 
it would have effectually disencumbered the General Assembly of 
the affairs of the college without compromising any essential or 
important principle. 

Any wish to embarrass the General Assembly was disclaimed, 
and it was declared that those who made this protest were the fast, 
unwavering friends of the church, and that they wished the Gen- 
eral Assembly to be freed as far as possible from all causes of 
agitation and confusion. This protest was signed by Robert Sloan, 
Caleb Weeden, Klam McCord, James Smith, William Henry, G. 
A. Fleming, Joel Lambert, F. C. Usher, David Negly, H. Mc- 
Daniel, A. H. Dudley, Richard Beard, Milton Bird, James Ritchey, 
William Halsell, James Ashmore, A. Shelby, and P. G. Rea. John 
S. Sawyer appended a personal protest in which he added other 
reasons for objecting to the action of the General Assembly. 

After the adoption of the report and the presentation of this 
protest against it, the friends of Princeton introduced a resolution 
declaring it inexpedient for the General Assembly to have control 
of any financial enterprise.' Dr. Cossitt, Robert Donnell, J. S. 
McClain, and the friends of Lebanon generally supported the reso- 
lution. Only six negative votes were cast, while fifty-nine voted 
in the affirmative. The resolution was in these words: 

Resolved, That it would be unwise, impolitic, inexpedient, and con- 
trary to the genius of presbyterian government for the General Assem- 
bly to enter into connections of a pecuniary nature giving it the super- 
vision of any literary institution or newspaper, or otherwise to become 
embarrassed by the control of pecuniary matters, so as to give occasion 
for its moral integrity and good faith to be called in question. 

When the General Assembly severed its connection with Prince- 
ton College, the authorities of that school resolved to keep it alive. 
They allowed the farm to be sold, reserving the buildings and ten 



224 



Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period in. 



acres of ground. After a brief suspension they reorganized a fac- 
ulty, and spread the banner of the college again to the breeze. 
The Rev. Richard Beard was elected president, and accepted the 
position. The career of the college after its abandonment by the 
General Assembly was happier and more useful than ever before. 
It kept clear of debt. It secured the services of that excellent 
agent, the Rev. W. G. L. Quaite, who, in spite of all the limita- 
tions placed upon him by the unfortunate history of the school, 
succeeded in securing considerable subscriptions to the endowment. 
Green River Synod took the cast-off child under its care. A good 
faculty was secured, and the existence of the institution was pro- 
tracted till 1858. At that time it ceased to be an institution of the 
Cumberland Presbyterian church. 

The outward history of the college has thus far been followed. 
A few words are added about its inner domestic history. Let us go 
back to the origin of the college in 1826, and take glimpses only, 
until the close in 1858. 

Economy was a standing text of the General Assembly, on 
which it annually preached the college a sermon. The faculty be- 
gan their administration in cap and gown a la mode, but the Gen- 
eral Assembly notified them that it wished both faculty and stu- 
dents to dress in home-made clothing from head to foot. The order 
was obeyed, and Dr. Beard says his jeans suit was made too large 
for him, but he wore it obediently. The students were required to 
have long linen aprons to wear while working on the farm. Many 
of the Southern boys, reared where slaves did all the work, met 
the labor requirements with bad grace, but there were no exemp- 
tions. Difficulties between students and the overseer of the farm 
were very frequent. The daily college routine had many details 
which would seem strange now. Every two hours a horn was 
blown for a new section of laborers on the farm. This horn and 
the ringing of recitation bells made the place seem quite lively. 
Those recitation bells were unlike any others I ever heard. A big 
bell hung near by. Each professor did his own ringing in his own 
peculiar way, so that his bell could be distinguished from all the 
others. One gave three clear taps, another gave two clear taps, 
another gave one tap and a jingle. When the hour was out it did 



Chapter XXII.] CUMBERLAND COLLEGE. - 225 

not follow that the class would be dismissed, even if it had a reci- 
tation in some other room, until the professor who had possession 
got ready to let it go. 

Every student was required to board at the refectory and sleep 
in the college dormitories. The spiciest part of this history be- 
longs to the refectory. The pigeon-holes in the old library used 
to be full of documents about that department of the college. 
Poetry, records of trials, testimony of committees sent to examine 
the fare, memorials of students praying for changes, complaints — 
sometimes by the students, sometimes by the managers — were all 
filed there. The students used to express their dissatisfaction with 
their fare in doggerel verse, and these satirical effusions were filed 
with other refectory papers. When it is remembered that the col- 
lege undertook to furnish boarding at forty dollars a year, we need 
not wonder that the fare was often complained of. 

Concerning those honored gentlemen who served as presidents 
of this institution a goodly volume might be written, and no doubt 
will be at some future time. Under the five different presidents 
there were five administrations of the college, each deserving a 
much longer notice than can here be given. The first president 
was Dr. Cossitt. His management of the young men was wise and 
fatherly. There were precious revivals of religion among the stu- 
dents at different times during his administration. Dr. Cossitt' s 
sermons were one of the chief agencies used of God in bringing 
these revivals about. For many years the graduates and foster 
children of this school who were trained under Dr. Cossitt' s in- 
fluence were the noblest workers for education in the Cumberland 
Presbyterian church, and among them were many faithful and 
efficient laborers in other departments of the work. 

The men who at one time or another assisted Dr. Cossitt in the 
work of instruction were James L. Morrison, Bertrand Guerin, 
David Lowry, T. C. Anderson, Livingston Lindsay, Richard Beard, 
F. C. Usher, and C. G. McPherson. Several of these became dis- 
tinguished teachers, and their record is well known. Dr. McPher- 
son has spent a large part of his life in educating young ladies. 
Mr. Lindsay went early to the practice of law, which he still pur- 
sues. Anderson and Beard will come before us in other con- 
*5 



226 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period in. 

nections, as will David L,owry. But it is proper to introduce here 
an interesting item about dowry's dwelling-house. When he was 
elected professor in the college ten acres of the college farm were 
allotted for his cultivation, and fifty dollars were appropriated to 
build him a house back of the camp-ground spring. In that fifty 
dollar house, the man who afterward spent the best years of his 
life as missionary among the Indians, lived without murmuring. 

Of the next administration, under the presidency of the Rev. 
Richard Beard, D.D., I can speak with the confidence given by 
personal knowledge. Dr. Beard took charge of the college in 1843, 
after the Assembly abandoned it ; when it was officially pronounced 
dead ; when its faculty had transferred their labors to the new insti- 
tution at Lebanon, Tennessee ; when, indeed, it was said and thought 
too that the college itself had been removed to Lebanon. Finding 
itself abandoned by the church, Princeton rallied and called Dr. 
Beard to the presidency. The loss of the farm and the manual 
labor feature proved to be a good riddance. 

The administration was all new. There was no more refectory ; 
no more restrictions laid on a student in selecting his boarding- 
house; no more laws requiring students and faculty to dress in 
home-spun. It was like passing out of Mosaic rigor into Christian 
freedom. True, there was still a printed code of by-laws nominally 
in force, but the example of Dr. Beard's holy and dignified life, 
and his appeals to the young men's sense of right were more effect- 
ive than all by-laws. The students respected, honored, and loved 
their president, and were proud of being under such a leader. 

They were like a family of brothers with Dr. Beard for their 
father. Each one felt that he had a friend and counselor in the 
president. Never under any circumstances laying aside his dig- 
nity, never tolerating any lack of respectful demeanor in his 
presence, he yet was felt and known to be the true friend and 
counselor of every one of his pupils. When these young men left 
college they never ceased to write back to him for advice in every 
perplexity. Of the thousands of old letters which he carefully 
kept, a large part are from his old students asking his counsel in 
some emergency. None ever asked in vain. 

All through the college life of his students there was a silent, 



Chapter XXII.] CUMBERLAND COLLEGE. 227 

invisible influence, a subtle, indescribable power going out from 
Dr. Beard's life and impressing all around him with the truth of 
Christianity and the high destiny of cultivated, sanctified, immortal 
manhood. Scholarship put on a new aspect under this influence ; 
an undersong awakening thoughts of personal responsibility and 
immortality blended with every lesson and recitation. This influ- 
ence soon spread over the whole church. Noble men, trained 
under Dr. Beard and his colleagues, carried this power with them 
wherever they went, and the precious fruits of his administration 
are earnest and consecrated men in the pulpits and colleges in all 
parts of the church. 

Those habits of severe study which Dr. Beard formed while a 
student of this institution, and which were a part of the town- talk 
for thirty years afterward, were strictly kept up by him all through 
his life. An idle student, strolling about at night, always met a 
silent rebuke when he turned his eyes toward Dr. Beard's library 
where the inevitable lamp burned on until late bed-time. His 
lectures in the chapel were one of the potent moral and educational 
resources of his administration. With an equanimity of temper 
rarely equaled, with a clock-like regularity of life which governed 
even the length of his footsteps, his uniform faultless precision was 
the talk of all the students. 

The faculty who labored with him in the work of instruction at 
one time or another were the Rev. F. ■ C. Usher, the Rev. J. G. 
Biddle, Philip Riley, W. S. Delany, and the Rev. Azel Freeman, 
D. D. Except Dr. Freeman, these were all alumni of Cumberland 
College. Mr. Usher had also been graduated in the Theological 
School at Princeton, New Jersey. Riley and Delany were grad- 
uated under Dr. Beard. Mr. Delany soon turned his attention to 
the legal profession, to which he is still devoted. Professor Riley 
spent his life in teaching. He was one of the purest and truest of 
men. His memory and his very looks are still enshrined in many 
hearts. One incident will illustrate his conduct toward his stu- 
dents: A young man who was very poor, and often unable to buy 
text-books, went one day to Professor Riley to borrow a copy of 
Smellie. He was told to come back next day. That evening Pro- 
fessor Riley went to town and bought a copy of Smellie, and when 



228 Cumberland Presbyterian History [Period in. 

the student returned he loaned him the book. An accident revealed 
the fact that he had bought the book specially for this student. 

Mr. Biddle remained only a short time in Princeton College, and 
then took charge of the school for young ladies at Winchester, 
Tennessee, devoting the remainder of his life to teaching in this 
school and to preaching the gospel. He labored as both teacher 
and preacher even while at Princeton. He has a son now in the 
ministry, the Rev. A. C. Biddle. 

The Rev. Azel Freeman, D. D. , afterward president of three of 
our colleges, was for a while professor of mathematics in Cumber- 
land College. The closing years of his life were spent in pastoral 
work in Pennsylvania and Ohio. He died at Cumberland, Ohio, 
December 3, 1886. Dr. Beard closed his connection with the in- 
stitution in 1855. That was its death blow. The church every- 
where so felt. Still three good men struggled, each for a short 
period, to save the dying institution, and some noble alumni were 
sent out by them; but the three administrations averaged only a 
year apiece. Then the institution was given up by Cumberland 
Presbyterians and other churches tried for a year or two to sustain 
it, but finally abandoned it. Princeton still has a college on another 
site and under new auspices, but it is in no sense the successor of 
old Cumberland College. The latter has utterly passed away, every 
vestige even of the old buildings having disappeared. 

Of the alumni of Cumberland College, the Rev. W. G. L. 
Quaite once said: "I can track every one of them by a path 
of light." This dear old college, even in its mistakes, bore good 
fruit. Our people had to learn by experience. Cumberland Pres- 
byterians will hardly attempt another manual labor college. They 
have seen and felt the curse of the credit system. They will 
not be likely to locate another college where the church is weak, 
expecting the members of other churches and outsiders to give the 
institution the necessary local support. Nor will they again make 
the fatal blunder of placing the financial management of such an 
enterprise in the hands of the General Assembly. Even these 
mistakes bear fruit; but the grand and deathless fruit which out- 
weighs all else is found in the men who were trained in this insti- 
tution, and in the souls that have been won through their labors. 



Chapter XXIII.] THE CHURCH PAPER. 229 



CHAPTER XXIII 



THE CHURCH PAPER. 

"Away with distrust and away with despair, 
Beyond all my thoughts and above all my prayer 
Exceeding abundantly Jesus will prove, 
The power and grace of his wonderful love." 

" Mente manuque fotens." 

THE chapter now to be written is the darkest one in all the 
history of the Cumberland Presbyterian church ; and, perhaps, 
the very hardest to write correctly. Two parties, with wholly dif- 
ferent views of what was right, and also with different views about 
what were the facts, have left us their conflicting testimony. 

The formidable difficulties which grew out of the church paper 
can not be explained without a general sketch of that paper's 
history. At Princeton, Kentucky, early in the year 1830, Dr. 
Cossitt, aided by the faculty of Cumberland College, started a 
weekly paper called the Religious and Literary Intelligencer. 
There had before this been several abortive attempts to start a 
church paper, but this was the first Cumberland Presbyterian paper 
which was really published. It was purely a private enterprise. 
The press was owned by the Rev. David Lowry, who at that time 
was one of the faculty of Cumberland College, and who was Dr. 
Cossitt' s chief assistant in the editorial work. 

The General Assembly of the church met in Princeton that 
year, as it had done the year before. A strong feeling was man- 
ifested in favor of a church organ, whose editor should be under 
the control of the General Assembly. When the men who were 
publishing the Religious and Literary Intelligencer met this Gen- 
eral Assembly, they submitted to that body a proposition to have 
their paper made the recognized organ of the church. In consid- 
eration of this advantage they agreed that the Assembly should 



230 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period in. 

have the exclusive right to appoint the editor. The records show 
that the proposition was accepted with the understanding that the 
General Assembly should neither own the press nor assume any 
financial responsibility in the matter. The Rev. David Lowry was 
chosen editor, it being understood that he should resign all his 
former relations to the college and devote his whole time to the 
paper. He proved to be well suited to the place. His adminis- 
tration was a good one. His financial management was wise. His 
editorials were able and his spirit Christ-like. 

In 1832 he moved the paper to Nashville, changed its name to 
The Revivalist, and made the Rev. James Smith his partner. 
This was not exactly authorized by the contract under which the 
paper became the organ of the General Assembly, but it was 
allowed to pass. The publication had prospered under Lowry's 
editorial and business management until he felt able to have an 
assistant. Smith was a Scotchman of great learning, and a preacher 
of strong influence throughout the West. He, however, liked to 
lead and expected others to follow. 

Before a year passed away Lowry sold out to Smith, leaving the 
latter in sole management of the paper. It is by no means certain 
that the Assembly, if left untrammeled, would have chosen Smith 
for its editor, but when it met in 1833 an( ^ found him already in 
possession, it " accepted the situation" and continued him in this 
position. In business matters Smith carried far more sail than 
ballast. He issued his paper to subscribers on a credit. He bor- 
rowed money extensively and gave his brethren in the ministry for 
security. When he was ' ' in funds ' ' instead of paying off these 
debts and saving his securities, he started new enterprises and made 
more debts. He contracted to publish all the books of the church, 
and these books were generally sold on a credit. He edited and 
published a monthly magazine of his own. He was ' ' pastor ' ' of 
the Nashville church. He published books, too, of his own, large 
works which required the best energies of his strong manhood, so 
that, in his own editorials, he tells us the paper was neglected on 
this account. Nor were these all the labors which he undertook. 
He was stated clerk of the General Assembly; he was treasurer of the 
church fund, and he taxed himself with various smaller matters. 



Chapter XXIII.] THE CHURCH PAPER. 231 

In 1834 the name of the paper was changed to the Cumberland 
Presbyterian. When the General Assembly met that year, Smith 
was hopelessly in debt. He laid all the blame of his embarrass- 
ment on the church because the people had not patronized the 
paper as he expected. The Assembly resolved to do two things for 
his relief. First, to raise twelve hundred dollars then and there, to 
be loaned to Smith or exchanged for unpaid subscription bills. 
Second, to extend the patronage of the paper during the next year 
to four thousand subscribers. The first resolution was carried out, 
but the second was never fully made good. 

On this action was based the best semblance of just ground for 
complaint which the editor ever had against the General Assembly. 
The subscription was never raised to four thousand. While some 
exerted themselves to secure new subscribers, old ones were con- 
stantly withdrawing. There were several reasons for these with- 
drawals. One of them is greatly to Smith's credit. He kept up 
incessantly the cry for reform in paying preachers and in having 
settled pastors. He was sometimes very severe; the facts called 
for severity, but subscribers grew sore under it and discontinued 
their subscriptions. Another source of dissatisfaction was the mul- 
tiplied engagements of the editor, and his frequent and protracted 
absence from the office. But greater than all other causes of trouble 
were the alienations which grew out of his business management. 

For two years the Rev. T. C. Anderson was employed by Mr. 
Smith as assistant editor. In his manuscript autobiography, 
written from time to time long before he began to fail in his 
memory, is an extended account of Smith and his paper. Dr. 
Anderson says that he himself, though working for a definite 
salary, and in nowise sharing in any profits which the paper might 
realize, was obliged to bring in all his own funds, and all his own 
credit, and to draw into the same snare all his personal friends who 
were willing to loan money or indorse Smith's notes; and that he 
retired from his connection with the paper because he saw clearly 
that Smith's management would bring bankruptcy, no matter what 
help the church might be able to render. He also states that Smith 
was often absent from the office three or four months at a time 
engaged in selling his books. 



233 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period hi. 

In 1835 the General Assembly renewed its determination to 
secure the four thousand subscribers. The list still fell six hundred 
short of that number. In 1836, in spite of the renewed exertions, 
the number of subscribers had declined rather than advanced. 
Bitter attacks had been made on the paper and on Smith. The 
General Assembly declared that so long as the paper was the church 
organ, those attacks were really on the church and not on Smith. 
The members renewed their pledges to struggle for an increase of 
the subscription list, and struggle they did, but it was like pouring 
water into a sieve. 

In 1837, when the General Assembly met, Smith resigned. He 
stated in his resignation that when he was elected editor it was un- 
derstood that the church would buy the press, own the paper, and 
indemnify him for all the losses he might sustain in the business. 
The General Assembly did not so understand matters. The official 
papers are preserved, and have been searched in vain for any hint 
of such an agreement. The records of the General Assembly show 
that Smith was to publish the paper on his own responsibility, so 
far as its finances were concerned. Smith stated in editorials, year 
after year, that he was publishing the paper on his own responsi- 
bility, except that the church had chosen him as editor, and his 
paper as the church organ. He had simply, of his own accord, 
stepped into Lowry's place, and the church allowed him to con- 
tinue in it. That individual members had assured Smith, on their 
own responsibility, that the church would buy the press and 
indemnify him for any losses which he might sustain is quite 
likely; that the General Assembly never gave any such assurances 
is absolutely certain. He had often urged the church to buy his 
subscription list and his press and pay him a salary as editor. His 
failure to secure the adoption of this policy had long chafed him. 

The committee to which Smith's resignation was referred, sub- 
mitted two plans for the publication and management of the paper. 
The first recommended that a joint stock company should be formed 
to own the paper and the press, and that the General Assembly 
should still elect the editor. The other plan was for the General 
Assembly to buy the paper and the press and conduct the enterprise 
through a publishing committee, Investigation showed that both 



Chapter XXIIL] THE CHURCH PAPER. 233 

schemes were impracticable. Then the General Assembly appealed 
to Smith to state the conditions on which he wonld be willing to 
continue the publication of the paper. He named three con- 
ditions. (1) That the members of the General Assembly should 
individually pledge themselves to help collect unpaid subscriptions. 

(2) That the members should pledge themselves to use all practi- 
cable exertions to bring the list up to four thousand subscribers. 

(3) That the General Assembly should publish a circular calling 
on all the members and friends of the church to aid in carrying out 
these pledges. All of these conditions were unanimously agreed 
to. Smith then pledged himself to carry on the work until the 
volume then commenced should be completed, and then either to 
hand the paper over to an association or continue it himself, or 
else cease to publish it. 

When the General Assembly met in 1838, Smith, without any 
conditions, asked to be continued as editor, and his request was 
granted. It was decided at this time that the next General Assem- 
bly should not meet until 1840. Therefore, the dissolution of the 
General Assembly of 1838 was equivalent to an adjournment for 
two years. The first of January, 1839, Smith began a series of 
editorials on reformation in the church. The pastoral relation, the 
pay of preachers, the mode of raising money for preachers, and the 
education of the ministry were the themes. While justice requires 
it to be said that the evils which he denounced were beyond the 
possibility of exaggeration, and the excoriations which he gave the 
church were all richly deserved; yet the terrible denunciations were 
not always of a nature to be endured, even by those who believed 
about those matters as the editor did. 

After all, it may have been necessary to make the crew angry 
and bring the ship within an inch of hopeless wreck in order to 
insure better navigation in after years. God's merciful and over- 
ruling hand was doubtless in it all. Men began to reply to Smith's 
severe denunciations of the church in his own columns. Several 
of Smith's editorials had prophesied secession. All the best min- 
isters, he predicted, would be driven out of the church, unless cer- 
tain reforms took place. As there was to be no General Assembly 
that year, he called for a convention. His call was seconded, and 



234 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period in. 

a convention was agreed upon to meet in Nashville at the time 
usually appointed for the General Assembly's meeting. A year 
before Smith had sold his printing office, and agreed to take his 
pay in printing. Before the convention met the publication of the 
paper was suspended, and the closing editorial, as well as several 
previous editorials, declared in the most unequivocal manner that 
Smith was forever done with all connection with the church paper. 
He urged the church to have an organ, but declared his purpose to 
be unalterably fixed not to be its editor. 1 The last issue of the 
paper at Nashville was dated April 30, 1839. If editorial declara- 
tions could settle any thing, it was settled that Smith was, under 
no conditions, ever to be church editor again. 

Although Smith was not appointed by his presbytery as a dele- 
gate to the convention, yet he was allowed to take his seat as a 
member, and he occupied one whole day in a set speech on the 
necessity of reforms. He published this speech afterward in a 
pamphlet. I have only some extracts from it, not being able to 
secure a copy. He said: u The ministry of the Cumberland Pres- 
byterian church are a mass of ignorance, heresy, and fanaticism." 
He charged lying and fraud upon the General Assembly, and other 
pleasant little compliments to the denomination inflated his sails in 
that wonderful harangue. But all this was mild compared to the 
wormwood, the gall, the pus atque venerium, which his private 
letters for the next few years poured forth. Several hundreds of 
these letters have been placed in the hands of the writer of this 
history. 

The convention passed resolutions in favor of reform. It 
appointed a committee to form a stock company to continue the 
publication of the Cumberland Presbyterian. It decided to have 
this paper issued from Lebanon instead of Nashville. The Rev. 
George Donnell was chosen editor. Its publication was to be 
delayed till the fall meetings of the presbyteries. At this point in 
the history some conflict as to facts begins. Members and friends 
of the convention say that Smith asked such an enormous price for 
his subscription list that no one could think of paying it. Smith 
denies that any conference with him on the subject of his subscrip- 

1 See editorials January 22, January 29, and April 30, 1839. 



Chapter XXIII.] THE CHURCH PAPER. 235 

tion list was ever sought. T. C. Anderson is very positive on the 
other side. One thing all are agreed upon, the subscription list of 
Smith's Cumberland Presbyterian was not purchased; but the con- 
vention resolved to start a paper with the same name to be the or- 
gan of the church. It was at this point in its action that the con- 
vention proved afterward to be vulnerable. The committee which 
reported the plan of action which was adopted by the conven- 
tion was composed of Hiram A. Hunter, J. S. McClain, Carson P. 
Reed, George Donnell, T. Ef. Wilson, Jesse Ford, and George Will- 
iamson. 

^ The first of September, just before the fall meetings of the pres- 
byteries, lo! Smith's paper reappeared! This time it was issued at 
Springfield, Tennessee, and some brethren, who had plenty of money, 
were meeting its financial wants. It claimed still to be the organ 
of the church, and the only organ. It explained its reappearance 
as a necessity, since the Lebanon committee had neither bought out 
its subscription list, nor made any provisions to supply the paper to 
subscribers whose time had not expired. It denounced the conven- 
tion as a clique, and declared the action of that body in assuming 
to publish an organ for the church unconstitutional and seditious. 

The defense made by the friends of the convention is all summed 
up in a few words. They said that the convention claimed no power 
to make any paper a church organ, but met and acted simply to 
keep alive the organ which the General Assembly itself had started; 
that it had the strongest evidences that Smith was forever done 
with the paper; that it met on Smith's call, without any hint or 
dream of any conflict like the one which had arisen; and that 
Smith himself cooperated heartily with the convention until he 
found that another man was to be chosen editor, and that his sub- 
scription list was not to be bought at an extravagant price. They 
said further that the convention had resolved to do its utmost in 
*he next General Assembly, and before the meeting of that body, 
to have Smith indemnified for all the losses he had sustained 
through any fault of the church. They showed that the conven- 
tion was composed of fifty delegates, among them many of the 
purest men of the church, appointed by the presbyteries in obedi- 
ence to a public call ; and that if any presbyteries were not repre- 



236 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period in. 

sented it was their own fault; that the convention acted in an 
emergency, under the pressure of a great necessity; and that the 
changes made in regard to the business management were such as 
the imperative necessities of the case required, and such as the 
General Assembly resolved on in 1837, when Smith first tendered 
his resignation. 

That Smith had the legal right to resume the publication of his 
paper and call it the organ of the church was generally conceded; 
but the propriety of his course, after his unequivocal declaration, 
in April, was questioned. Parties rapidly formed. Angry feelings 
were stirred up. The presbyteries nearly all took action in favor 
of one party or the other. Finis Bwing and John L. Dillard, both 
threw their great influence on the side of Smith's paper. Logan 
Presbytery passed resolutions condemning the convention, and 
declaring Smith's paper the true organ of the church. Alabama 
Presbytery did likewise. Richland Presbytery and all of Columbia 
Synod, with Robert Donnel.l at their head, took the side of the con- 
rention and requested the members of their congregations not to 
take Smith's paper. 

Secession, division, disruption were the words floating in the 
air. After nearly all the presbyteries had arrayed themselves as par- 
tisans in the contest, -and many of our best men had utterly de- 
spaired, a synod in Illinois passed resolutions calling on all parties 
to agree to submit the whole question to the next General Assem- 
bly, and to forbear all further discussion of the merits of the case 
till that Assembly should meet, and urging all true lovers of Jesus 
to join in prayer to God for the peace of the church. 1 That voice 
for peace and prayer, without taking either side, was surely a voice 
from heaven. 

The committee appointed by the convention to issue a paper 
from Lebanon resolved to delay this publication until the meeting 
of the General Assembly, and to refer the whole matter to that 
body, but this wise decision of that committee was robbed of some 
of its peaceable fruits by the course of Smith's paper. In October, 
1839, the Rev. George Donnell wrote a private letter to the Rev. 
John W. Ogden, who was corresponding editor of Smith's paper, 

1 It is said that Rev. Joel Knight was the mover of these resolutions. 



Chapter XXIII.] THE CHURCH PAPER. 237 

correcting the rumors which even then were afloat that the Lebanon 
committee had declined publishing a paper. This letter, with no 
dates affixed, was kept standing in the editorial columns of Smith's 
paper until the Assembly met, in May, 1840. 

I have not felt at liberty to quote Smith's private letters, but 
have used them in investigating questions about which the other 
authorities are in conflict, especially when the evidence of these 
letters is on the side of the convention. These private letters shed 
much light on various editorials about c ' The Union College, ' ' and 
other cognate subjects which appeared in the paper while it was 
published at Springfield, Tennessee. Their contents, moreover, are 
a complete vindication of the people of Lebanon from some of the 
charges which the friends at Princeton made at the time the i l re- 
moval ' ' of the college took place. While Mr. Smith had all the 
time ably advocated an educated ministry, he seemed to have a 
deep-seated dislike to Cumberland College. His bargain with the 
General Assembly, in 1833, taxed him ten cents on each subscrib- 
er, for the benefit of that institution; and although John Barnett, 
after his lease began, voluntarily released the paper from all tribute 
to the college, yet there was a sting left. Editorials in the paper 
declared the college to be of little or no benefit to the church. Mr. 
Smith visited Lebanon, Tennessee, in 1839, for the purpose of in- 
ducing the people of that place to establish a church college. The 
account of his conference with R. L. Caruthers, under Smith's own 
signature, is in my possession. Caruthers took just the ground 
which his known loyalty to the church would have led us to ex- 
pect. He thought the college at Princeton a doomed enterprise; 
but so long as it continued to be the college of the church, he would 
do nothing in conflict with the General Assembly's plan. Smith's 
account of that conference is dated September 10, 1839. At Spring- 
field his persuasions proved more effective than at Lebanon. Here 
he not only found men to set his paper going once more, but he se- 
cured subscriptions amounting to six thousand dollars for a church 
college. Through his influence the school and buildings then in 
use in that town were transferred to this new ' ' college. ' ' He urged 
the presbyteries to send their candidates for the ministry to Spring- 
field, promising every presbytery fifty dollars on each two hun- 



238 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period in. 

dred subscribers for the paper, the money to be paid in tuition at 
Springfield. He afterward made extensive tours among the south- 
ern churches, raising money to endow his college. He always 
speaks of it as "my college." He says, in one letter, that he se- 
cured several thousand dollars from the Cumberland Presbyterians 
of Mississippi for his school. He never raised a farthing for Cum- 
berland College. 

Smith was ubiquitous. He traveled, he wrote letters, he de- 
livered lectures, and in all places he struggled to stir up the church 
against the convention and its proposed paper. He visited the 
presbyteries at their spring meetings in 1840, calling attention to 
his sufferings and arousing sympathy. Some presbyteries which 
had shown strong aversion to him and his course as editor turned 
over under his vigorous speeches, and passed resolutions indorsing 
him and his paper, and denouncing the convention. It was evident 
to all true friends of the church that there was danger ahead. Smith 
had an army of old camp-meeting friends; for his camp-meeting 
preaching had been, from the first, his most powerful work. But 
there was another army, made up of sufferers from his financial 
recklessness, who said that every enterprise of the church which 
had ever been touched by him had either been injured or ruined by 
the contact. 

There were still alarming symptoms of approaching schism, 
when, in March, 1840, the Rev. F. R. Cossitt, President of Cum- 
berland College, commenced issuing a monthly pamphlet, which 
he called The Banner of Peace. He made no charges for this pe- 
riodical, but sent it, at his own expense, throughout the church. 
He declared his aim to be the peace and unity of the church. He 
said that this monthly would be published until the meeting of the 
General Assembly as a free magazine, but if continued longer a 
subscription fee would be charged. His editorials were powerful 
appeals to all parties for peace. He showed no leaning, in his 
paper, to either party; but he published an article for Smith which 
declared the church to be in its death agonies. 

True friends of the church rallied to the support of Cossitt' s 
views, and many a noble plea for peace appeared in the columns of 
the Banner of Peace. To F. R. Cossitt, more than to any other 



Chapter XXIII.] THE CHURCH PAPER. 239 

human agency, does the church owe its escape from wreck in the 
General Assembly of 1840. 

When that Assembly met the mind of the majority was made 
up to leave both Smith's paper and the proposed Lebanon paper 
without either recognition or condemnation, and for the time 
being to have no church organ, but to settle on something like lib- 
eral terms with Smith, and to be forever done with him. Smith 
claimed large things, especially on account of his losses arising 
from the failure of several General Assemblies to secure the prom- 
ised four thousand subscribers. He proposed arbitration, but the 
General Assembly declared this unnecessary, as a satisfactory set- 
tlement seemed practicable without it. A committee was appoint- 
ed to investigate the matter. This committee reported that a pa- 
tient inquiry into all the facts had satisfied them that the General 
Assembly did not owe Mr. Smith any thing; but, as he made a large 
claim, and as some of the members of the church believed his claim 
to be just, they recommended that nineteen hundred dollars be paid 
to him as damages. 

The recommendation was adopted. The nineteen hundred dol- 
lars were paid before the Assembly adjourned, and Smith's receipt 
was spread on the Minutes. 

After this Smith's course was a strange medley. While the Gen- 
eral Assembly maintained control of the college at Princeton, Smith 
wrote the most abusive private letters against that institution and 
all connected with it. But when the Assembly abandoned that 
school, and Smith was forced also to abandon his college, then he 
became a very earnest partisan of the college at Princeton and 
against the college at Lebanon. All through his editorial career 
he had been an advocate of a church organ, to be owned and con- 
trolled by the General Assembly. When the Assembly failed to 
continue him as editor, he at once suspended the publication of 
his paper, and warmly denounced the policy he had defended 
before, declaring that the church should not own or manage either 
college or newspaper. This he did through the columns of Mil- 
ton Bird's paper. There were two weekly newspapers now pub- 
lished — one by Dr. Cossitt, and one by Milton Bird. Bird was 
then a young man. Smith, it is said, did his utmost to array 



240 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period in. 

Bird's paper against Cossitt, and against the college at Lebanon. 
In this way alone is it possible to account for some of Mr. Bird's 
editorials, they are so unlike all that noble man's record before and 
afterward. Smith had been stated clerk of the General Assembly; 
but he did not deliver the records over to his successor till three 
years after his resignation, though he was twice ordered to do so. 
He came very near involving Milton Bird in a serious difficulty by 
inducing him to make a proposition to publish these old records, 
and sell them as private property. Not friendship to Bird, but 
schism in the church was thought to be his aim. Once he talked 
of forming a church of his own. 1 He tried to enlist various par- 
ties, but could not secure the followers that were necessary for 
such a scheme. Then he struggled to persuade many of our best 
men to go with him into the Presbyterian church; but his only 
success was in the case of John W. Ogden. , 

The evils growing out of the lack of proper compensation to 
ministers, of which Smith so bitterly complained., had already 
driven out of the church several strong men. Among these the 
strongest, perhaps, was the Rev. W. A. Scott, D.D., who recently 
died in San Francisco. Mr. Ford, of Louisiana, who also left the 
church about the time Scott did, was influenced by purely doctrinal 
considerations, so he declared in a letter to Dr. Beard. Smith was 
very confident that he would take Dr. Beard with him. He told 
various persons that Dr. Beard was going to leave the church. 
Beard wrote to Smith calling him to task for these reports. Smith 
defended his statements as a prophecy based on the nature of the 
case. He said to Beard: "You will be obliged to go; they will 
drive you out as they are driving me." 

It was once generally believed among Cumberland Presbyte- 
rians that W. A. Scott tried to induce Dr. Beard to leave the 
church. There was not a particle of foundation for this belief. 
All Dr. Scott's letters to Dr. Beard have been examined, and there 
is not the remotest hint at any such thing. While there were 
tempting offers made to Dr. Beard, most of them originated with 
Smith. 

1 Proofs of all this are among many of the literary remains in my hands, espe- 
cially those of the Rev. Isaac Shook. 





Rev. F. R.Cossitt. D. D. 




i r.CBunn c 

^E - :^YAN, D.D. R EV. Ml LTON B I R D. D. D. 



Chapter XXIII.] THE CHURCH PAPER. 241 

The impression was long current among our people that system- 
atic and unlawful means were resorted to to entice our educated 
men to join the Presbyterian church. Careful examination of 
private diaries, correspondence, and other records, reveal no trace 
of any such efforts. Had the facts been as our people once thought 
they were, the evidence would inevitably exist in some of the doc- 
uments now in my hands. The main motive for withdrawing 
from the Cumberland Presbyterian church and joining the Pres- 
byterians is correctly stated in a letter to Dr. Beard, written by 
one who had taken this step. He says: " There is no hope of 
my ever getting a living as a pastor in the Cumberland Presby- 
terian church. Between being secularized and false to my min- 
isterial vows, and adopting the Westminster Confession with such 
mental reservations as I know to be made by many of the Pres- 
byterian ministry, I chose the latter as the far lesser evil." 
16 



242 



Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period in. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 



THE TRANSITION FROM MISSIONARY EVANGELISTS 
TO PAID PASTORS. 

A library imitated in wood. 

— Vinet. 

THE learned Erasmus declared that no king's office is equal in 
dignity to the office of the humblest pastor. In a heathen 
country, under peculiar circumstances, it was all right for Paul to 
work with his own hands to earn his own bread, and preach with- 
out any pay. Likewise the state of things in the new settlements 
to which the self-denying missionaries went, made it absolutely 
necessary for them, at first, to earn their own bread by some secular 
pursuit. It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that there should 
have grown up in the Cumberland Presbyterian church, all of 
whose preachers were at first missionaries, loose views about the 
pastor's office and pastors' salaries. Indeed, many of our preachers 
and people came to think that pastorates were invented by self- 
seeking men who dreaded the hardships of an itinerant life and 
wanted big salaries. An element of positive opposition to the 
office of settled pastor, in the true Presbyterian sense of that word, 
sprang up. There was, along with this, a disposition to apply the 
name pastor to any minister who had regular appointments, how- 
ever rare, to preach in any one congregation. 

When the second Cumberland Presbyterian General Assembly 
met, 1830, this opposition to the pastoral office had reached its 
zenith. That General Assembly, by a large majority, voted to 
submit to the presbyteries the question of striking out of the Form 
of Government the whole section recognizing the pastoral office. 1 

x It may be well to note that the chapters and sections were then numbered 
differently from their later form. The numbering was changed by the Rev. James 
Smith, publisher of the book. 



Chapter XXIV.] TRANSITION TO PASTORATES. 243 

The General Assembly not only submitted this question but de- 
clared the change desirable. 

There were then only eighteen presbyteries: of these, only two 
voted for striking out that chapter. Thirteen voted no. Three 
made no report — perhaps did not meet — as there were often failures 
to secure a quorum in the new presbyteries. The effort was never 
renewed, but year after year the feeling grew in the General Assem- 
blies that the regular pastoral office, in its true sense, would have 
to be established. In 1835 a faint utterance in favor of settled 
pastors was given by the General Assembly. In 1836 an unequiv- 
ocal declaration of the importance of the pastoral office was placed 
on record. 

The first battle was won; but let it not be supposed that all 
opposition to the pastor's office had disappeared. I give one exam- 
ple: At the meeting of the West Tennessee Synod in 1849 tne 
Committee on the State of Religion brought in a report which 
contained a paragraph about the deplorable lack of settled pastors. 
This report was met with the most uncompromising opposition. 
Earnest and eloquent speeches were made against it by some of the 
oldest ministers present. The chairman of this committee and the 
Rev. Samuel Dennis, D. D. , then pastor of the Cumberland Presby- 
terian church in Memphis, were the only men who stood up in 
that meeting in favor of the regular pastoral office. Yet, in that 
synod, the largest in the church, there was not at that time any 
genuine evangelist, and not as many as a half dozen men devoted 
exclusively to the work of the ministry. A system of supplies, on 
Sabbaths, by preachers who through the week earned their bread 
in secular callings, was depended on in that synod, and is, alas, the 
system by which many of our churches are still kept up. 

Very few of the early Cumberland Presbyterian ministers had 
any correct idea of the true nature of the pastor's office. When 
the necessity for real pastorates was urged, many seemed to think 
that installation was all that they lacked. The people soon under- 
stood, however, that he who served them under the name of a 
pastor, was in fact but a secularized supply who preached on the 
Sabbath and then went back to his worldly pursuits. In many 
cases these preachers rode eight or ten miles on Sabbath morning 



244 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period in. 

to their appointments, and rode back Sabbath evening. Thns an 
utter lack of any correct knowledge of what a true pastor is, was a 
serious difficulty in the way of introducing true pastors. 

Even now the truth is but slowly dawning upon our people that 
pastor and evangelist belong to two very different vocations; so 
different, indeed, that fitness for one is presumptive evidence of un- 
fitness for the other. The standards by which the churches have 
usually judged of a man's fitness for the pastor's work, or of his 
success when in that work, are standards which belong rather to 
the other vocation, that of the evangelist. To preach thrilling, 
popular sermons, to attract a great crowd, to gather in many 
wealthy members, to build a fine meeting-house — such things as 
these have been regarded the ne plus ultra of pastoral success. 
There may be no systematic beneficence in the congregation, no 
entire personal consecration to Christ's service in the daily practi- 
cal life of any member; the missionary spirit may be wanting in 
both pastor and people; no child of the church may ever go to 
labor among the heathen or enter the holy ministry ; family prayers 
may be neglected in the households, and the members be untaught 
in the great fundamental truths of Christianity; there may be as 
little separation from the ways of a godless world as the devil him- 
self could wish — still if the attractive sermons draw great crowds 
and a handsome salary is paid, the man who occupies the pulpit is 
regarded by many as a successful pastor. Ah ! the great day will 
reverse many a human verdict. 

The long-established custom of looking upon thrilling popular 
sermons as the sole test of a pastor's fitness has built up a stubborn 
barrier against right measures. Let a man who knows what real 
pastoral work is studiously avoid all sensational discourses and all 
mere spasms, and set himself to work earnestly to organize, drill, 
train, and indoctrinate his flock in real, personal consecration to 
Christ; let him strive to cultivate love to Jesus by enlisting every 
member of the flock in a thorough study of the Bible and in active 
efforts to do good and win souls, and in a large majority of cases, 
the church will rebel. That is not what they want; they want to 
be thrilled with eloquence on the Sabbath and left to themselves 
through the week. 



Chapter XXIV.] TRANSITION TO PASTORATES. 245 

That the pastor's office is the most difficult and important of all 
human callings can be easily proved. It is a calling from God, yet 
those who engage in it need special training, more careful than 
that required in any secular employment or profession. But when 
the transition from circuit preaching to settled pastorates became a 
necessity, there were in the Cumberland Presbyterian church no 
men trained to the pastoral office. Our people had no school to 
teach the theory of pastoral theology; no experienced pastors to 
lead and train the rising ministry, and there were no churches 
willing to sustain a pastor decently. It is a wonder, under all the 
circumstances, that the preachers of that period succeeded as well 
as they did. 

Men who know nothing about a difficult calling generally 
underestimate the labor required to master it. Many of the 
preachers failed to understand the difficulty and importance of 
pastoral work. A leading minister, one of the most beloved and 
successful pioneer missionaries in the church, declared in a public 
discourse that the whole science of pastoral theology could be 
mastered in two hours! Even yet few among us know what care- 
ful and extensive preparation is needed for the pastor's work. 
Discussing the extreme difficulty of a true pastorate the learned 
Bengel said: "Many things are needed in order to create a true 
community." The care of individual souls is like preparing the 
individual stones for a temple. To create a true spiritual commu- 
nity — the temple in its finished state — is a life work. It is never 
done by any one great revival or under frequent change of pastors. 
As well talk of one painter beginning a painting and a whole 
" apostolical succession " of other painters carrying out the original 
design. A true pastor, by a whole life-time of toil, may accomplish 
the work, but even then the inner fountain of power must be the 
Lord of glory himself dwelling in the pastor. When one such 
spiritual community is secured the results are abiding. 

The pastors in this transition period had to unteach some 
wrong lessons which the church had learned. The silence of the 
pioneer preachers about money had created a strong opposition to 
paying preachers. This existed not only among the covetous and 
the worldly, but among people who had considerable reputation 



246 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period in. 

for piety. Indeed, congregations which were celebrated for dem- 
onstrations of religious fervor were often the very ones which gave 
the least money. 

All the first Cumberland Presbyterian preachers started wrong. 
Bitterly did our old men regret their failure to teach and train the 
people in this duty, but their regrets came too late. It will take 
several generations yet to get rid of the leaven of their example. 
In the midst of the great congregation at Big Spring, Thomas 
Calhoun, near the close of his life, used substantially these words: 
' ' I am now old, and must soon go to meet my Judge. I have been 
one of the actors in establishing the Cumberland Presbyterian 
church, and in all that pertains to its early history. I have a clear 
conscience save only about one thing. We have all failed to do 
our duty in training the people to pay their preachers. I have 
lived to see the ruinous consequences of that failure, and I don't 
want to die without confessing my sin in this matter in the most 
public manner possible." So too, did Ewing and others make 
public confession, but it came too late. The evil continues. 

In several instances synods sent men to preach on this subject 
throughout their bounds, the order in one case extending to a whole 
State. One can not, however, help doubting whether any man of 
the class and type to which the first Cumberland Presbyterian 
preachers belonged, would be likely to accomplish much in such a 
mission. That whole generation of preachers had false views on 
this subject. " Supporting the gospel" was the text; a pitiful hat 
collection, which furnished the ministers who held the meeting 
from one to three dollars apiece for a week's labor, was the appli- 
cation. The men who gave the money were, in their self-compla- 
cent views, " supporting the gospel." Many of the efforts of the 
presbyteries to remedy the difficulty were as pitiful as these hat 
collections. One presbytery 1 resolved that every member of the 
church ought to give twenty-five cents a year to "the support of 
the gospel;" another, that all church members should give fifty 
cents apiece annually for this purpose, and another had the daring 
to ask every member of its congregation to pay a dollar a year to 
secure the means of grace. In one of the oldest and richest por- 

I have all these presbvterial records before me. 



Chapter XXIV.] TRANSITION TO PASTORATES. 247 

tions of the church, a presbytery named ten dollars per annum as 
the amount which each of its congregations ought to try to pay 
its "pastor." 

Now place by the side of these "heavy burdens" which the 
presbyteries were laying upon the churches, the burdens which 
these preachers were themselves patiently bearing. From a num- 
ber of examples recorded in the church paper, one is selected. In 
the spring of 1832, when a minister of good talents was ordained, 
he volunteered to go as a missionary to a new State. He had fifteen 
hundred dollars in money and no family. He went on his mission 
without any provision for compensation. He traveled and built 
up several small churches, paying his own way, until all his money 
was gone. He had said nothing about compensation, though the 
people he preached to were generally getting rich; but the time 
now came when he could no longer pay his own way and travel as 
a missionary. He went into secular business, and continued to 
preach on Sabbath without- one cent of pay. The church paper 
commenting on this case and others like it, calls them cases of 
necessity. But did not the neglect of duty have something to do 
with creating this necessity ? The ministers of that day were too 
sensitive and timid about preaching on the duty of giving. What 
they did say often made matters worse. 

At a later day there were a few men in the church who knew 
how to present this subject. Dr. A. J. Baird was one of these. 
There was a church in one of the Wealthiest portions of Middle 
Tennessee whose pastor had resigned because his salary could not 
be raised. Dr. Baird visited this church with a view of bringing 
it up to its duty in this matter. He first conferred with the session 
and learned that the difficulty was not about the man, but only 
about the salary. The people could not raise enough money to 
support that man or any other, and had decided to dismiss the 
pastor and depend on monthly supplies from some non-resident 
minister. Baird plead and argued, but the session finally told him 
that he would not even be permitted to canvass the congregation 
for subscriptions. All this was on Saturday. On Sabbath Dr. 
Baird preached, discussing the whole subject in that practical and 
common-sense way of which he was a master. At the close of the 



248 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period in. 

sermon he described his interview with the session. Then he 
added, ' ' I am not going to ask either this session or these chnrch 
members to give one cent; but I am going to raise the pastor's 
salary here to-day among the unconverted people. These sinners 
have a higher appreciation of the blessings which stand forever 
connected with the regular means of grace than this session has. 
I want some of these rich old sinners to start the subscription. 
Who will pledge a sum bearing some little proportion to the 
inestimable worth of the gospel?" In less than a half hour the 
whole salary was raised, and that without the name of a single 
church member. Dr. Baird then delivered a scathing lecture to 
that session, and proceeded to install the preacher as pastor for 
those sinners. 

Dr. Baird was often called to present this subject, but in no two 
cases did he use the same methods. Once at Lebanon, Tennessee, 
where the congregation had generally maintained a standard of 
liberality above the average, they fell sadly behind in the pastor's 
salary, and sent for Dr. Baird to help them. He came and met the 
congregation, making just a little talk in which were only three 
points. In the first he assumed that the people of Lebanon would 
not consent to be left destitute of the means of grace. In the 
second he discussed, very briefly, one way of supplying this 
acknowledged necessity — the old scriptural way of having one 
man exclusively devoted to that work and paying him for his 
labors, as we pay lawyers, doctors, and others. Thirdly, he stated 
that this scriptural method had been tried in Lebanon, and had 
broken down, and he had been sent for to help devise ways and 
means to meet the emergency. He said, " Sometimes when peo- 
ple want a new meeting-house, and can not raise money enough 
to hire a carpenter, they divide out the work among the members 
and do it themselves. Inasmuch as we can not raise money enough 
here to have one man do all the preaching and pay him for it, we 
shall have to divide out the work among the members and not try 
to have any pastor. I have made," said he, "the best distribution 
of the labor I can, and will now proceed to read the appointments. 
'Squire McClain, you will preach next Sunday morning and Sun- 
day night." "No I won't," said the 'Squire. "No dodging," 



Chapter XXIV. J TRANSITION TO PASTORATES. 249 

answered Baird, "there will be some rare head-scratching in 
'Squire McClain's office the next few days. It is not quite as easy 
as it looks to prepare two sermons in one week. " "I am not 
going to prepare any sermons," said McClain. "What will you 
do then? Are you going to do without the gospel?" "No," he 
answered, "lam going to pay my full share of the salary and have 
a pastor to do my part of the preaching." The pastor was re- 
tained, but we are not told whether he was adequately paid or not. 

To go forward and preach the gospel, pay or no pay, is certainly 
right. In that, the example of our fathers is worthy of all com- 
mendation. But there is also another line of duty. To be silent 
about money, to say nothing about consecration to God in pocket 
as well as profession, to leave unrebuked a habitual course of con- 
duct which robs God and robs his own called ministers who stand 
before the church in his name and by his authority as his own 
ambassadors — this is a criminal neglect of part of the very work 
committed to those ambassadors. It is useless to try to conceal 
the fact that our fathers were sadly delinquent in this part of their 
duty. This is a blot on the record of their heroism and their 
spirituality which we can not wash off. The heroism and spirit- 
uality are with the dead past. Old established communities, crys- 
tallized into a life devoted mainly to worldly things, is what we have 
now. This silence on the subject of money which was persisted in 
by the first Cumberland Presbyterian preachers even while actual 
want pressed upon some of them and their families, and the gen- 
eral secularization of the ministry which followed it, suited well 
the carnal hearts of nominal church members who gloried in a 
"free gospel." As a consequence, it is hard now to find any 
church which is willing to pay a pastor a living salary. Our 
churches have been trained to take a preacher's labor without pay. 

Grave as was the fault of the ministry, a far more grievous 
complaint is recorded in heaven against the churches. With some 
honorable exceptions, they stand charged before God with robbing 
their own pastors, and that, too, where there is no chance to plead 
any lack of plain teaching from the pulpit as an apology for the 
robbery, nor any lack of ability on the part of the robbers. A 
painful array of historical facts might be here presented, but to 



250 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period in. 

publish the details, with the names of the preachers and of the 
churches which took their services without pay would, perhaps, 
give offense and not cure the evil. An old preacher, in extreme 
poverty, and utterly helpless in body, says U I spent forty years 
giving my whole time to such and such churches. ' ' The list is 
omitted. "In no one of these churches" he continues, "did I 
ever receive more than half the salary which they promised to pay 
me. If I had these unpaid balances, I would now be in easy circum- 
stances." This man was an able preacher in his day, and there 
were many conversions under his ministry. The position taken 
here is indorsed by the authority of one of the noblest servants 
and truest friends the Cumberland Presbyterian church ever had. 
In Dr. Beard's diary for September 18, 1855, is the following entry: 
"Went to Brother Mansfield's; found him in his field at work. 
He is a good and useful preacher, and yet is laboring on a farm to 
support his wife and children. Will not the church have to render 
a fearful account for her treatment of such men ? ' ' 

The reports of several hundreds of circuit riders show that 
about one third of them received no pay at all. Perhaps another 
third received some socks, and from five to twenty dollars a year in 
money. The largest salary reported by any one of them was 
eighty dollars a year. Only one reports so large a sum. The 
compensation of the first "pastors" in the church was still more 
meager. It was not expected that men who did not travel would 
be paid any thing for preaching. It was said that the church to 
which a leading minister devoted the best years of his life did 
not, during the whole time, pay him as much as twenty dollars. 
But we are improving; people and preachers are improving. Per- 
haps when all the formidable obstacles which had to be overcome 
are taken into the account, the improvement ought to be con- 
sidered remarkable. One of the largest and most central presby- 
teries may perhaps be taken as an average sample of what the 
whole church is now doing. It has forty ministers. Three of 
these are entirely supported by their congregations. Two others, 
whether supported or not, give their whole time to the work of the 
ministry. Six others are devoted to church work under some of 
the boards, and twenty-eight are secularized, though they preach 



Chapter XXIV.J TRANSITION TO PASTORATES. 251 

on Sabbath and get some little compensation. Now that circuit 
riding is no more, and camp-meetings are generally abandoned, our 
churches must employ regular pastors or cease to exist. The chief 
hope of the church is with the young men who take a regular 
course of theological studies and enter the pastoral work. Every 
true pastor is a light-house among the churches. The work of 
many such in town and country stands as the strongest argument 
in favor of permanent pastorates. 

The sermon which this chapter preaches needs to be followed 
by an exhortation. The credit system, pledges forfeited by church 
judicatures for future payment of money, the failure to pay sub- 
scriptions and even notes given to church enterprises, the injustice 
and robbery of neglecting to support pastors and evangelists, or of 
refusing to pay the meager salaries promised them, are all forms 
of financial mismanagement and wrong -doing. From just such 
things as these the greatest dangers and losses of the church have 
come in the past. It will be well if such causes of trouble are 
avoided in the future. 

Not only to Barnett and Smith did the General Assembly make 
pledges which it had no power to fulfill, but there were other simi- 
lar cases. The particulars of one such instance are found in the 
manuscript autobiography of the Rev. R. D. King. When the 
General Assembly of 1834 asked the Rev. Samuel King and his 
son to go on their long evangelistic tour among the churches, it 
included in the request a solemn pledge that the evangelists should 
be compensated for their services. R. D. King took his wife to 
the home of her relatives in Kentucky, where she and her children 
remained during the twenty months of her husband's absence. 
When these evangelists made their final report to the General 
Assembly, they stated that their compensation had been one hun- 
dred and fifty dollars less than their unavoidable traveling expenses. 
One member then arose in the Assembly and moved that steps be 
taken to redeem the pledge for compensation made to these evan- 
gelists. Another member made a speech against the motion, de- 
claring that neither he nor the Assembly then sitting had ever 
made any such pledges. "This Assembly," said he, "is not the 
same body which pledged compensation, and we are not bound 



252 Cumberland Presbyterian History. {Period in. 

either morally or legally." The matter dropped there. There 
being no second to the motion, no vote was taken. When the 
clerk read in the Minutes the words, "compensation nearly equal to 
their traveling expenses," Samuel King objected. But being 
appealed to to let this record stand u for the sake of the church," 
he withdrew his objection. R. D. King had to borrow money to 
remove his family back to his little home in Tennessee. On his 
arrival he found that his note for the borrowed money had preceded 
him and was in the hands of an officer. His property was sold 
under the sheriffs hammer. He says that for a considerable time 
after that his purpose remained fixed to preach no more for Cum- 
berland Presbyterians. In that state of mind his communion with 
God was cut off. Heart-searching followed, and the conclusion 
was reached that his preaching was for Jesus and not for any de- 
nomination, and he girded on his armor once more. There have 
been many other cases like R. D. King's, belonging to all the 
periods down to the present day. 

There are scriptural methods of transacting financial affairs, but 
the credit system forms no part of these methods. Church debts 
are unscriptural, and whether they be contracted by congregations 
or church judicatures, or chartered boards, they are always a curse. 
A chapter might be devoted to the history of such debts. It would 
tell of college buildings which have been sold to meet the claims 
of creditors; of houses of worship mortgaged, and at last forfeited; 
of pastors disappointed and crushed; of good men alienated from 
the church because its pledges were not redeemed; of donations 
from the wealthy turned away from our institutions by disaffection 
and want of confidence caused by financial failures. The materials 
for such a chapter are at hand. Among other things is the record 
of a consecrated pastor, an able and holy man, who in his last 
illness, only a few years ago, was kept from starving, not by his 
congregation which still owed him large balances on his salary, 
but by unconverted men whom God sent, like the prophet's ravens, 
to feed his servant. But let these sad records of failure and wrong 
rest in oblivion till the great day of reckoning shall bring them 
to light. 



ChaDter XXV.] MISSISSIPPI AND LOUISIANA 253 



CHAPTER XXV. 



THE CHURCH IN MISSISSIPPI AND LOUISIANA 

Thy mighty river yet shall know 
A gracious stream of grander flow. 

— Anonymous. 

IN the chapter on Bell's Indian mission, notice was taken of the 
first work of Cumberland Presbyterians in the territory which 
now forms the State of Mississippi. That work was exclusively 
among the Indians, who throughout that period occupied the 
northern portion of Mississippi. The condition of things south 
of the Indian country presented few attractions for Cumberland 
Presbyterian preachers. The settlers did not come from the field 
occupied by this new church; they sent no pressing calls for its 
missionaries, while far more such calls than the presbyteries could 
possibly respond to came from other fields. The Tombigbee Pres- 
bytery, organized in 1823, included Bell's mission, but there were 
then in Mississippi no congregations of white people belonging to 
this church. 

White people, and some of them Cumberland Presbyterians, 
had penetrated the Indian country, and were making their homes 
there, the treaty of 1816 having opened the door for such settle- 
ments. Robert Bell, John C. Smith, and James Stewart, all con- 
nected with the Indian mission — Stewart only a short time — 
preached to these pioneers. But the whites who settled in the 
Indian country were, with some noble exceptions, people of bad 
character, and their influence was a serious barrier to the success 
of the gospel among the Indians. One of these white men was a 
slave trader from Princeton, Kentucky, who circulated slanderous 
reports about a mission which the American Board had established 
in Mississippi. This negro trader, on his purchasing tours, fre- 
quently visited Kentucky, and spread his slanders against the 
missionaries wherever he went. These missionaries held anti- 



254 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period in. 

slavery views, and were sadly in his way. F. R. Cossitt and David 
I,o wry, knowing the vileness of this man's character, publicly 
denounced his slanders, and warned the people of Kentucky 
against him. They also wrote to the Cumberland Presbyterian 
missionaries, begging them to furnish the means of vindicating 
their brethren in the Monroe mission. This Mr. Bell did in such 
a thorough manner that the neighboring mission was not again 
assailed. This generous interference against a dan'gerous ruffian 
in behalf of a mission planted by another board illustrates the 
magnanimous spirit of the Cumberland Presbyterians of that day. 

One of the men who settled in Monroe County, Mississippi, 
long before the Indians moved away, was Colonel John S. Topp, 
an elder in the Cumberland Presbyterian church. Among the 
anecdotes told by him is one connected with the final removal of 
the Indians from this territory. Various pretexts for delay had for 
years retarded this promised removal. Finally, all things were 
supposed to be ready, but still the Indians failed to assemble for 
their journey. The agent inquired, "What is the matter now?" 
They told him that their chief, Tisho Mingo, was in prison for 
debt. This was strange, for Tisho Mingo had been rich. It 
seems, however, that he had been robbed while preparing to move, 
and could not pay his debts. Colonel Topp suggested to the agent 
that the old chief should take the insolvent debtor's oath. This 
was done, and Tisho Mingo released. The Indians, who stood 
around when the oath was administered and their chief released, 
exclaimed in wonder: "Talk a little on the book, talk a little off 
the book, and Indian's debts paid." This was the last obstacle 
of any serious character to their removal. 

The agent who removed the last company of the Chickasaws 
completed his task in the spring of 1839. Only a few wealthy 
families of this tribe remained till a later period. The Choctaw 
country was opened in 1833. The sudden opening to settlers of 
all the vast cotton lands vacated by the Indians, synchronizing 
with that wonderful inflation of the currency, together with the 
fabulous stories of vast fortunes to be accumulated in Mississippi, 
caused an immense rush to that territory. It was said, and per- 
haps with some truth, that a man without one cent of capital could 



Chapter XXV.] MISSISSIPPI AND LOUISIANA. 255 

go there, buy land 011 a credit, and negroes with borrowed money, 
and make enough on his cotton to meet every payment' Specula- 
tion ran wild. Many preachers of different churches went to Mis- 
sissippi' under its promptings. Others who went there to preach 
were told by older settlers to seize the golden opportunity to make 
themselves independent first. ' ' We will loan you money. Get you 
a plantation and hands to cultivate it; get them paid for; and then 
you can go and preach as much as you please." One preacher 
writes in the church paper that he was told that Mississippians 
would not listen with any respect to a preacher who let "this 
golden opportunity for independence slip, and then expected the 
people to support him." Thus it came about that most of the 
preachers of all the churches were secularized. The statement 
was published at that time that nine out of every ten ministers in 
Mississippi were secularized. From a long series of letters in the 
church paper on the condition of things in Mississippi between 
1832 and 1834, we learn that the capital of the State for fifteen 
years had neither church -house nor school - house. Ten whole 
counties in the poorer regions east of Pearl River had only one 
preacher who could read and write. The richest county in the 
State had neither bookstores, academies, nor pastors. According 
to this writer, people going to Mississippi caught the mania for 
speculation, and lost all concern about books, schools, churches, or 
any thing else. He wrote over a fictitious signature, and his state- 
ments are perhaps exaggerated. 

Other writers, who do not use fictitious names however, give a 
sufficiently dark picture of the wild spirit of speculation which 
prevailed for five or six years after the Choctaw country was opened. 
The Clinton Presbytery (Presbyterian) sent forth a strong protest 
against this state of things; and inasmuch as it had previously 
given official indorsement to the zeal and consecration of the few 
Cumberland Presbyterian preachers in that field, it now published 
through our church paper an earnest protest against the course 
which some preachers of our church in Mississippi were then 
taking. 

In the diary of the Rev. Isaac Shook is an account of a visit 
to a Mississippi town in 1834. There were seven hundred inhab- 



256 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period 111. 

itants, and among them five Protestant ministers all secularized. 
One was a merchant, one a school-teacher, one a lawyer, and two 
" slave drivers," as Shook calls them. They were u seizing the 
golden opportunity to secure independence." Shook began a 
series of meetings. By and by the school-teacher began to attend. 
There was a revival. Then the merchant, who also sold whisky, 
came of nights, and grew wonderfully zealous, but he still sold 
whisky. The others would drop in occasionally, but took no 
special interest. The meeting closed. One of these preachers 
afterward was silenced; all of them utterly lost the confidence of 
the people. The town became noted for its contempt of Chris- 
tianity. 

In 1836 the church paper stated that all the Cumberland Pres- 
byterian congregations in Mississippi had been organized in the 
preceding five years. At the meeting of Columbia Synod, in the 
town of Pulaski, Tennessee, on the fourth day of November, 1831, 
the order was passed for the formation of Mississippi Presbytery. 
Its limits on the south-west were indefinite; on the south it ex- 
tended to Mobile. Its original members were to be Thomas J. 
Bryan, Robert Molloy, Samuel W. Sparks, and Isaac Shook; and 
its first meeting was to be held in the town of Gallatin, Copia 
County, Mississippi, the fourth Thursday in April, 1832, Thomas 
J. Bryan to be its first moderator. T Different statements as to who 
were the original members of this presbytery have been published, 
but this is the correct list as ordered by the synod. These varying 
accounts are thus explained: Several ministers from different syn- 
ods were living in Mississippi, but not enough from any one to 
form a presbytery. The Rev. S. W. Sparks and the Rev. Isaac 
Shook, both of Columbia Synod, volunteered to go at their own 
expense to Mississippi and co-operate with Molloy and Bryan— who 
also belonged to that synod, but lived in Mississippi— in the forma- 
tion of a presbytery. As soon as the presbytery was organized it 
received as members the other resident ministers, and then Shook 
and Sparks returned. 

In going to Mississippi they had traveled on horseback to 
Memphis, thence by boat to Vicksburg, and thence on horseback 

x See records of Columbia Synod, in the church paper, November 17, 1831. 



Chapter XXV.] MISSISSIPPI AND LOUISIANA. 257 

to Gallatin. They expected to return by the same route., but God, 
in his providence, had other plans for Shook. He was induced to 
visit some old friends in Mississippi and hold meetings for them. 
He afterward made arrangements to go all the way back to Hunts- 
ville, Alabama, by stage. Saturday, May 19, 1832, Mr. Shook 
was traveling homeward in the stage. He would not travel on the 
Sabbath, and his only alternative was to spend two days at the 
hotel in a strange town, which had the reputation of being a very 
wicked place. Stages passed only on alternate days, and hotel bills 
in Mississippi were very high. I^ate Saturday night Shook put 
up at the Columbus hotel. Sunday morning he found the hotel 
keeper to be an old acquaintance and a special friend. Through 
him an arrangement was made for Shook to preach that day in 
the Baptist church. Shook says that he preached with the feeling 
that he would never see his congregation again till the great judg- 
ment-day, and he prayed God to enable him to be faithful. Early 
Monday morning he was waited on by the pastor and one elder of 
the Presbyterian church who urged him very earnestly to remain 
till the next Sabbath, when their communion meeting was to 
begin. He hesitated, but said he would give them an answer be- 
fore stage time. In the course of the day, he found that his sermon 
the day before had awakened several sinners. He resolved to re- 
main. Mr. Byington, of the Choctaw mission, came and assisted 
in the meeting. At the close of Shook' s first sermon, he "called 
for mourners, ' ' and two ladies, who were leaders in society, came 
forward. At the close of his second sermon, the school-mistress 
and nearly all her school came forward. The interest spread to 
the country, where it seemed to be greater than in town. It was 
finally decided to hold meetings at different points all around 
Columbus. On, till the first of August, over two months, Shook 
continued preaching every day. In Columbus and the surround- 
ing country, three hundred persons claimed to be converted at 
these meetings. Of these, Shook took twenty into the Cumber- 
land Presbyterian church. He says he encouraged no one to join 
the Cumberland Presbyterians because he saw no prospects of any 
reliable supply of the preached gospel from our ministers. He 
even apologizes for receiving the twenty, but says they would not 
17 



258 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period in. 

agree to belong to any other church, and were willing to put up 
with sermons by occasional circuit riders. The Rev. Samuel 
Nelson rode that circuit and supplied this little flock with the gos- 
pel for a few years. In 1839 this little church at Columbus called 
Mr. Shook as their pastor at a salary of $800. He served them 
faithfully for many years. The war came near destroying this and 
many other Southern congregations, but in spite of the war and 
of other hindrances, this faithful band still perseveres in the work. 

A member of the Mississippi Presbytery, rather short of funds, 
rode one hundred and fifty miles to attend one of the early meet- 
ings of that body. He found the members all quartered at the 
town hotel, each paying $3 a day for himself and horse. There 
was no meeting-house in the town, but the forest was near by, and 
the presbytery convened under the trees. The clerk wrote on his 
hat crown. The largest Cumberland Presbyterian congregation in 
the State in 1836 numbered only twenty-eight members. Small 
as was this beginning our membership in that State at a later day 
was among the foremost in the whole church in every good work. 
This is especially true in reference to the payment of pastors' 
salaries. In all the important financial enterprises of the church 
from 1840 to i860, Mississippi and Alabama took a leading part. 
They were favorite fields for agents appointed in any part of the 
church to raise money. Before the war the contributions of 
Alabamians and Mississippians to the endowment of the colleges of 
the church far exceeded those made by the people of any other two 
States. Notwithstanding the losses caused by the war, Mississippi 
still stands among the foremost States in supporting all church 
enterprises. 

In 1832 the Mississippi Synod was organized. Its presbyteries 
were the Mississippi, the Alabama, and the Elyton. This synod 
extended its jurisdiction into Louisiana and over all Texas. By it 
Louisiana Presbytery was organized in 1835, and Texas Presbytery 
in 1837— (ordered in 1836). Three new presbyteries created by 
Mississippi Synod were soon dissolved. These were named Colum- 
bus, Charity Hall, and Shiloh. Two other presbyteries were 
organized in this State during this period, which still exist — Ox- 
ford and New Hope. The efficiency and energy of the New 



Chapter XXV.] MISSISSIPPI AND LOUISIANA. 259 

Hope Presbytery, its admirable organization, and trie consecration 
of its preachers and people, deserve special commendation. 

In 1832 the Rev. H. H. Hill traveled in Alabama and Missis- 
sippi, holding meetings. His work was greatly blessed. The 
Rev. R. Iv. Ross was a convert of these meetings, as were his 
father and nearly all the family. In 1834 the Rev. W. S. Burney 
was engaged in holding camp-meetings in Mississippi. He was 
assisted by the Rev. A. P. Bradley, and their work was abundantly 
successful. Jefferson Brown, Joseph Harrison, and Cyrus Wilson 
all labored in this field about this time. Wilson was afterward a 
candidate for governor of Arkansas, but was defeated. Elam 
Waddell, Jabez Hickman, and F. M, Fincher came next. In 1838 
the Rev. Richard Beard took charge of the Sharon Academy in 
Mississippi, and his influence and labors were a great help to the 
church in that State. James Mitchell, Andrew Herron, J. B. 
Jopling, Wayman Adair, and John P. Campbell, all preached in 
Mississippi during this period. Of all this list, only a very small 
number were free from secular pursuits. The New Hope Pres- 
bytery (1838) was united with the Columbus Presbytery in 1840, 
and then had among its members, Wayman Adair, Thomas Tabb, 
Joe Bell, James W. Dickey, W. C. Ross, F. B. Harris, Isaac 
Shook, and some others. Perhaps W. C. Ross is the only one of 
the list who still lingers on earth. I 

The Rev. R. L,. Ross entered the ministry in Mississippi soon 
after his conversion in 1832. He has always been a liberal helper 
in church work. By good management and rigid economy he has 
been enabled to give more money to our church enterprises than 
any other preacher in the denomination. He has often aided Cum- 
berland University, in some cases u just in the nick of time," 
when his contributions saved the institution from disaster. There 
are some touching incidents of his early work in the ministry, one 
of which deserves to be recorded here. There was in Mississippi a 
neighborhood made up of Scotch emigrants, and Mr. Ross became 
very much attached to them and married one of their daughters. 
They were all Presbyterians, and had brought their Scotch 
pastor along with them. This pastor, whose name was McDonald, 

x The united presbytery was called New Hope. 



260 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period in. 

was an earnest Christian but very much afraid of " disorderly " 
revivals, and especially afraid of Cumberland Presbyterian revivals. 
Still he became attached to Ross, and finally consented to have 
Ross and L,eftwich, both Cumberland Presbyterian preachers, hold 
a camp-meeting for him. It was not long before the Scotch pastor 
was startled by loud shouting from some of his ' ' orderly ' ' mem- 
bers. Throngs of penitents were at the "mourner's bench," and 
the conversion of some of them made parents and relatives forget 
all about "order." The pastor, along with the elders, looked on 
with great displeasure. One of these elders was named McKee. 
The pastor soon discovered, to his great disgust, that McKee' s little 
daughter, only eleven years old, was one of the mourners. He 
advised the father to take her away, saying they would ' ' frighten 
her to death. ' ' The father acted on the advice immediately. She 
was taken to a tent and put under medical treatment. She was 
given a camphor bath, then a strong toddy was administered, and 
she was put to bed. The pastor and elders then decided to put a 
stop to such a disorderly meeting, and so announced to Ross. 
The latter, believing the pastor to be a sincere Christian, asked 
him first to go alone to the forest and spend a season of earnest 
prayer for divine guidance. The old Scotchman was a believer in 
divine guidance, and he took Mr. Ross' advice. When he returned 
his mind was made up to let the meeting go on one more day and 
see what the results would be. In his prayer he said he had asked 
God if there was any good in such meetings to let him see con- 
vincing proof of it that day. That night a curious spectacle was 
presented. The Scotch parents, with their children seated by 
them, all occupied the outside seats as far away from the pulpit as 
possible. They had all given orders to their children not to go to 
the mourner's bench. Ross preached with great power, and then 
"called mourners." The pastor stood leaning on the pulpit. 
Mourners came in great numbers, among them the pastor's son, 
thirty years old. His two married daughters also came. Mr. Ross 
then went to the pastor's wife and insisted that she should go 
to her children who were seeking salvation and give them instruc- 
tions. She went and commenced talking to her daughter about 
"waiting the Lord's own time." But just as the mother began 



Chapter XXV.] MISSISSIPPI AND LOUISIANA. 26l 

her instructions the daughter rose shouting. Her face shone with 
heavenly light, and the mother then and there acknowledged that 
the work was from God. She went and knelt by her son, and 
began a silent prayer for him. Her prayer soon grew audible. 
Then it was poured forth with all the ardor of a Methodist. The 
son was soon rejoicing. Then another son; and then the mother 
was on her feet preaching Jesus and crying ' ' glory to God. ' ' By 
this time every doubt vanished from the pastor's heart, and mount- 
ing a chair he gave a thrilling exhortation to all sinners to come at 
once to the arms of the Redeemer. He told them all that he was 
now fully convinced that this was God's work, and that resistance 
to it was resistance to God's Spirit. All barriers were now swept 
away and many were gathered into the fold. Several of the con- 
verts joined the Cumberland Presbyterians. The Rev. J. F. 
McDonald, of our church, is a descendant of this old Scotch 
pastor. It is gratifying also to know that the little girl who was 
dragged away from the mourner's bench was, in after years, con- 
verted. She became the Rev. R. L. Ross' second wife. 

The Cumberland Presbyterian church was never strong in 
Louisiana. At a camp-meeting held by Rainey Mercer and Robert 
Molloy, near Springfield, on Lake Pontchartrain, in St. Helena 
Parish, October, 1831, the first congregation of our people in that 
State was organized. Here, as everywhere else, the pioneers 
formed a temperance society when they organized a church. The 
next account we have of the work of Cumberland Presbyterians in 
that State is from John W. Ogden, March, 1832. He had organ- 
ized a church at Opelousas, with forty members; and another at 
Alexandria. Each of these congregations began at once to build 
a suitable house of worship. Ogden also reported great revivals at 
his meetings throughout his circuit, especially in Bayou Cotile 
and Bayou Rapide. In 1835 the Rev. Samuel King and his son, 
R. D. King, rendered some valuable assistance to the church in 
Louisiana. W. A. Scott, then a licensed preacher, was also in 
that field. So, too, was the Rev. Thomas B. Reynolds, and prob- 
ably Wiley Burgess. The Louisiana Presbytery was organized 
March 13, 1835. Its original members were John W. Ogden, 
Rainey Mercer, and Thomas B. Reynolds. At this first meeting 



262 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period in. 

it ordained W. A. Scott, P. M. Griffin, and Sumner Bacon. 1 This 
presbytery has had a hard struggle. It has been dissolved and 
again revived. Of its ministers Scott, Ogden, and Ford left the 
church. Still, in spite of these discouragements and losses, it 
maintains its organic life and its preachers and congregations are 
accomplishing good work for the Master. They deserve help. 

1 Minutes of Louisiana Presbytery, in Revivalist, Vol. i., No. 31. 



Chapter XXVI.] THE CHURCH IN TEXAS. 263 



CHAPTER XXVI 



PLANTING THE CHURCH IN TEXAS— 1828 TO 1842. 

The Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I 
have called them. — Acts xiii. 2. 

WHILE Texas was a part of the constitutional and federal 
Republic of Mexico, various colonies of people from the 
United States settled in that province. Most of these colonies 
obtained large grants of land from the Mexican government. In 
1834 it was said that sixty thousand of these colonists were living 
on Texas soil. Though all these Anglo-Saxons were from a Prot- 
estant country, yet they lived under laws which forbade all public 
Protestant worship. There was at first no Protestant preacher in 
all the province. 

In 1826 Sumner Bacon, an unprepossessing son of Massachu- 
setts, living then in Arkansas, presented himself to Arkansas Pres- 
bytery of the Cumberland Presbyterian church as a candidate for 
the ministry. He was dressed in buckskin clothing. His man- 
ners were rough, like his dress. He gave a very unusual account 
of what he considered his call to the ministry. He said he was 
only called to one special work, and not to the general work of 
the ministry. He was called to go to Texas, where there were no 
Protestant preachers. On account of the strange appearance and 
strange call of this young man, the presbytery declined to re- 
ceive him. At a subsequent meeting of the same presbytery he 
presented himself again> and was again rejected 1 How blind we 
all are! God had specially trained up a man of his own choosing 
for a special work which no ordinary man could do. As a soldier 
in camp, then as a surveyor on a dangerous frontier, with Yankee 
energy and Cumberland Presbyterian zeal, this rough man was 
furnished for his wild, hard, dangerous, but exceedingly important 

1 History given by the Rev. J. A. Cornwall, who was present. 



264 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period in. 

mission. Because he was rough, wore buckskin, and had a special 
call, the dear brethren of Arkansas rejected him; but God will not 
be thwarted if men are blind. 

At the same time that Bacon was receiving these impressions, a 
Cumberland Presbyterian lady living in one of the Anglo-Saxon 
colonies in western Texas was daily making it a matter of special 
prayer that God would send to her neighborhood a preacher of the 
everlasting gospel. Meantime Bacon, nothing daunted by rebuffs, 
gathered up what means he could control, and in 1828 set out to 
perform his mission to Texas, without human authority. At his 
own expense he managed to secure some Bibles and tracts, and 
began his work as an independent lay evangelist among the people 
of western Texas. He was the first Protestant who ever preached 
on Texas soil. As it was dangerous for people to open to him 
their houses, he held his first meetings under the trees, near the 
house of that praying lady. 

But Bacon encountered far greater danger from ruffians than 
from Mexican laws. If there had been any very great rigor in 
enforcing those laws his out-door meetings could not have been 
held. Only a small part of the population were Catholics. The 
priests were generally extremely ignorant. 

Bacon was acquainted with a regular agent of the American 
Bible Society in Louisiana, the Rev. Mr. Chase, and often obtained 
Bibles from him. Chase was a minister in the Presbyterian church, 
and took great interest in Bacon. The question of lay ordination 
had been pressed upon Bacon, as there was no ordained preacher 
of any Protestant church in Texas. His friend, Chase, did not 
favor this plan, but urged him to wait and trust God to open up 
the way for ordination in some regular channel. In 1832 Mr. 
Chase obtained for Bacon a commission as agent for the American 
Bible Society, which he accepted with the distinct stipulation that 
he was to receive no salary. 

Sometime in 1833 Bacon's life, which had often been endan- 
gered and often threatened, was nigh being taken by some desper- 
adoes of western Texas. There are some variations in the many 
different accounts of this adventure, but the authority here fol- 
lowed is the church paper, whose editor compiled his statements 



Chapter XXVI.] THE CHURCH IN TEXAS. 265 

from correspondence with Bacon at trie time. x Bacon was informed, 
before starting to an appointment to preach, that he wonld cer- 
tainly be waylaid and killed if he went 011 that journey, and ear- 
nest efforts were made to dissuade him from going. Failing in 
that, the man who warned him against attempting the journey, 
and who some say was a Texas ruffian won over to be Bacon's 
friend, armed himself, saddled his horse, and went along with the 
preacher. Passing a narrow ravine, in which it was necessary to 
ride single file, the armed friend saw two men rush upon Bacon 
and knock him from his horse at a single blow. His companion 
fled, and reported that Bacon was killed. It seems, however, that 
he was not dead. The assassins dragged him into the thicket for 
the purpose of concealing their bloody deed, when they discovered 
that their victim still lived. They were proceeding to complete 
the work, when Bacon asked them to allow him a few minutes for 
prayer. This was granted. The man of God knelt and poured 
forth a most earnest prayer for his murderers. When he rose, the 
assassins were in tears, and declared to him that they could not kill 
so good a man. 

Sometime afterward Bacon was to hold a camp-meeting. His 
first camp-meeting, 2 and the first ever held in Texas, was in Sabine 
County, in 1833. It is not certain whether it was at this or some 
other camp-meeting in the same year that his life was again in 
jeopardy. Ruffians went to the meeting armed, declaring their 
purpose to kill him. On the appearance of these desperadoes, one 
of the men who had been prayed for in the former attempt on 
Bacon's life, rose with his gun in his hands, and, planting himself 
in front of the preacher, told the people that he was there to defend 
Bacon. He stood guard while the minister delivered his sermon, 
and no violence was attempted. Amid scenes like thest *«« Cum- 
berland Presbyterian church, the first Protestant church of Texas, 
was planted. 

Bacon kept a book in which he took the signatures of all those 
who claimed to be Christians, and of all others who were willing 

'See Cumberland Presbyterian, April 25, 1835. 

2 A Methodist minister aided in this meeting. See Bacon's own letter in the 
Cumberland Presbyterian, October 23, 1833. 



266 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period in. 

to enter into a solemn pledge to live a Christian life. As yet, he 
had no human authority to preach, nor was there in Mexico any 
Protestant church court to give such authority. Mr. Bacon's 
work, as Bible agent, was characteristic of pioneer life. He had 
a pack-horse to carry his books, and bear skins to cover them in 
rainy weather. His chief difficulty was in crossing the water- 
courses. When he reached a deep river he went into camp and 
remained till he could construct a raft which would bear him and 
his books. That done, he swam his horses over beside his raft, 
and went on his way again. A number of his private letters 
written to friends u in the States" show that he made earnest 
appeals for help. In these letters he says that he found the 
Mexicans destitute of the Scriptures, and generally eager to be 
supplied. He seemed to feel no fears of being arrested for dis- 
tributing the word of God, and always spoke in terms of tender 
interest about the immortal souls of the people among whom he 
labored. His circuit was from the Gulf of Mexico to the western 
border of Texas. He preached and scattered Bibles as he went. 
The heavens were the roof over his head at night. The prairie 
grass furnished him forage. Indians, Mexicans, persecuting 
priests, and rigid laws, bloody assassins, and wild beasts, were all 
in the hands of his God who sent him to that special field. 

Arkansas Presbytery had refused to recognize his special call, 
but the Great Head of the church raised up another presbytery to 
enjoy the honor of commissioning him to preach. In 1835 the 
Rev. Mr. Chase wrote to Mr. Bacon that a Cumberland Presby- 
terian Presbytery was to be organized at Alexandria, Louisiana, in 
March, and urged him to attend. Bacon did so. Mr. Chase also 
attended and made a statement to the presbytery of the peculiaf 
and pressing nature of the case, whereupon the presbytery received 
Bacon as a candidate for the ministry, licensed, and ordained him 
all on the same day. 1 Mr. Chase preached the ordination sermon. 
God not only raised up the man of his own choosing for this work, 
but he raised up also, in the bosom of the Presbyterian church, a 
friend to stand before a Cumberland Presbyterian judicature and 

1 Minutes of Louisiana Presbytery, in Cumberland Presbyterian, April 15, 1835, 
and April 22, 1835; also, editorial in it. 



Chapter XXVI.] THE CHURCH IN TEXAS. . 267 

plead for a suspension of the educational rules in that particular 
case. It was with some difficulty that Mr. Chase succeeded in this 
matter, and the presbytery spread on its minutes a declaration that 
this case was not to be a precedent in the future. Ah, God rules! 

Before Bacon's ordination, some two or three other ministers 
of other churches had penetrated the wilds of Texas and lent their 
aid to the good work. They and Bacon often met at camp- 
meetings, and through their united efforts many souls were brought 
to a knowledge of Jesus. 

Meantime, other features in the plans of the heavenly Father 
were slowly brought to light. The usurpations of a military 
despot drove the Texans into revolt. Men from the States rushed 
to their assistance, and among these was Andrew Jackson McGown, 
a son of one of Andrew Jackson's old colonels. His parents were 
then living in Texas, and though he was a probationer for the 
ministry, going to school, when he heard the cry for help he left 
school, and books, and native land, and went to join the patriot 
Texan army. He reached Texas in the darkest period of the rev- 
olution. Citizens fleeing in wild dismay from the cruel invader 
first met him; next the retreating army. All the woe and alarm 
which such things always involve, greeted him. Casting in his 
lot with the army he gave his whole heart to the struggle. The 
books, the songs, the histories, and the oratory of Texas, all 
dwell fondly on the name of A. J. McGown. One of the Texas 
poets represents it as the loftiest achievement of any man to pass 
through such a war with both a soldier's heroism and a Christian's 
integrity unsullied by a single spot, and then ascribes this high 
honor to McGown. 

His service with the patriots of Texas was in the providence of 
God a means of fitting him for his special work afterward. The 
fact that he had shared in the dangers and triumphs on the battle- 
fields of 1835 and 1836, appealed, as nothing else could, to every 
Texan patriot's heart. All the rest of his days, in his work in the 
ministry, McGown used the influence thus acquired with wonder- 
ful effect. Many a time he visited neighborhoods where mob 
violence had been used against preachers, but an appeal to his 
comrades of San Jacinto never failed to call forth daring friends 



268 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period in. 

who would protect him from all attacks. On one occasion, in a 
thrilling appeal to his army comrades while "calling mourners," 
he saw a man who had been an officer in his regiment, rising, and 
as he advanced saying, "I'll come, Andy, for your sake." Mc- 
Gown cried out, ' 4 Stop, stop, not for my sake, but for your poor 
soul's sake, and for Christ's sake." That day was one of great 
victory for Christ and his cause. Not even the historic fields of 
the 21st of April, 1836, can compare with it. The books of earth 
keep one record, the archives of eternal glory keep the other. 

McGown traveled and preached with as much zeal and energy 
as he had manifested in the struggle for Texan independence, 
laboring as all other Cumberland Presbyterian preachers on the 
frontier had to do, without any pay. On one occasion he came to 
a ferry, but had no money. He told the ferryman that he had a 
pair of new socks which he would give him for his ferriage. The 
offer was accepted, and the preacher went on his way rejoicing. 
On another occasion, his clothing was worn and threadbare. The 
Rev. S. W. Frazier, who was traveling with him, was also in need 
of clothing. A gambler, who saw their need, went into a store 
and bought a suit of clothes for each of the preachers. Thus they 
were supplied. 

In 1836 McGown and Bacon first met. Both of them had their 
hearts earnestly set on the interests of Christ's kingdom in the 
Republic of Texas, for the Lone Star banner then floated over that 
field. A presbytery, a newspaper, and a school were three things 
which they agreed to work for. To secure the first they attended 
the meeting of Mississippi Synod, whose jurisdiction extended 
indefinitely to the south and west. At their request- this synod 
authorized any three ordained ministers of the Cumberland Pres- 
byterian church who could be got together on Texas soil to organ- 
ize a presbytery. McGown was not yet ordained. Next year, 
November 27, 1837, the Rev. Amos Roark of Hatchie Presbytery, 
and the Rev. Mitchell Smith of Talladega Presbytery, met at the 
house of the Rev. Sumner Bacon of Louisiana Presbytery, and 
there constituted the Texas Presbytery. 1 At this first meeting 
R. O. Watkins was received as a candidate for the m inistry. The 

1 Minutes published in Cumberland Presbyterian, February 20, 1838. 



Chapter XXVI. ] THE CHURCH IN TEXAS. 269 

organized churches of our people then in the Republic were but 
four in number. One was in eastern Texas, then supposed to be 
in Arkansas, and was organized by Milton Estill, in 1833, the first 
in the State. Another was in Sabine County, where the first 
camp-meeting was held. It was organized by Bacon, in 1836. A 
third was in the Watkins neighborhood (Nacogdoches) and was 
organized in 1837. With war still raging, with only three ordained 
preachers, and four churches, the first presbytery had a dark pros- 
pect before it. It however adopted brave and decided measures. 
It resolved to establish a school and a religious paper, and seek help 
from the church in the United States. It adopted the platform 
of total abstinence. Its memorial to the General Assembly asking 
help > was a document of great ability and earnestness. It sent 
Amos Roark to the next General Assembly (1838), and that body 
resolved to send the Rev. Samuel Frazier as missionary to Texas. 
Roark, accompanied by Frazier, returned to Texas overland, on 
horseback, holding meetings along the way. In a letter to the 
church paper, written on this long journey, they say that in every 
place people bade them farewell with tears, imploring God's 
blessings on their labors in that distant field. 

Before the Texas Presbytery was organized, the Rev. Robert 
Tate, one of the most devoted of Tennessee's young preachers, 
resolved to make Texas his home. This young man had property 
enough to enable him to preach without pay, and it is said he 
uniformly refused to accept any compensation for his preaching. 
His was a wonderful religious experience. After thrilling advent- 
ures in a life of sin, he had been almost miraculously rescued by 
divine grace. He went to Texas in 1835. He spent less than a 
year preaching as an itinerant missionary in that country when 
his financial interests called him back to Tennessee. After trans- 
acting this business he started on his long journey back to the land 
of his adoption, but died on his way, September 17, 1837. Tate 
was not the only pioneer preacher in that field who was called to 
heaven after a very brief season of toil. Samuel W. Frazier 
entered on his work there, and died the same year at Houston, 
December 9, 1838. 

That vear also witnessed the accession of two more ordained 



270 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period in. 

preachers to trie Texas Presbytery. These were James McDonnold 
and Milton Moore. In those days the journey to Texas from any 
of the Eastern States was a very different thing from what it is 
to-day. There were two routes, one by river and Gulf, and then 
by ox » wagons; the other overland in ox wagons all the way. 
Emigrants generally chose the latter route. Santa Anna, while a 
prisoner, had acknowledged the independence of Texas, but Mex- 
ico refused to abide by the acts of a prisoner. War was not over. 
Indians and Mexicans made common cause, and the Comanches 
were more dreaded than the Mexicans. When James McDonnold 
started from Tennessee to Texas great crowds of people gathered 
to see the family take their departure. He had a large circle of 
kin besides numerous church friends whom his preaching had won. 
His eldest son was with Houston's armies, and stories of battle 
and blood were still coming from that land which was farther off 
than British India is to-day. When the ox wagons began to creak 
along the highway, bearing our friends away, it was to us who 
were left behind very much like seeing them led to execution. 4 
Everybody was weeping. On McDonnold' s arrival in Texas he 
entered on his old life — "a circuit rider." With a large family to 
support, he yet managed to give himself to the work of the 
ministry. 

One measure adopted by the Texas Presbytery at its second 
meeting had in it the ring of 1800. In the vast destitution which 
that pioneer field presented, the presbytery resolved to send out 
elders to help to organize churches. Another fact shows the char- 
acter of the times and the dangers to which these pioneers were 
exposed. At one time the place appointed for the meeting of the 
presbytery was invaded by the Indians, and the whole settlement 
broken up, so that a called meeting had to be held to select another 
place. Along with this fact is another of similar significance. R. 
O. Watkins had a regular circuit assigned him. The whole cir- 
cuit was invaded by Mexicans and Indians and the settlers all 
driven off. Watkins being unable to pursue his circuit work, 
went to Mississippi and entered school. Still another incident 
sheds light of the same character. In 1840 the presbytery was to 
meet at Fort Houston. When the time for the meeting arrived, it 



Chapter XXVI.] THE CHURCH IN T^XAS. 271 

was considered necessary for all the members to arm themselves 
and travel in a body, like a band of soldiers, for mutual protection. 
At this meeting of the presbytery, R. 0. Watkins was ordained. 
This was the first ordination of a minister by Protestants on Texas 
soil. At the same meeting Watkins' horse got away and he had 
to walk home, a distance of eighty miles, through a country over 
which hostile Indians were constantly roaming. He traveled 
mostly by night. 

Meantime, other valuable men were joining the ranks of Texas 
Cumberland Presbyterians. The Rev. J. M. Foster, and the Rev. 
F. B. Foster, natives of Wilson County, Tennessee, but Missou- 
rians by adoption, arrived in Texas in 1841, and spent the rest of 
their days in labors for the church in that country. 

There was a period of great darkness to the members of this 
solitary presbytery. Warlike invasions, and other difficulties, 
drove them to the verge of despair. Roark went back to the 
United States. A. J. McGown went also, but expected to return. 
His mission was to seek aid for Texas, and especially to try to raise 
money to start a newspaper. Some powerful appeals for help were 
at that time published by Texas preachers. They said that other 
churches were sustaining several missionaries there, while the little 
band of Cumberland Presbyterian pioneers were left without help. 
They did not complain of their own hardships, but pleaded that 
others should be sent and sustained. Very little, however, was 
ever done by the church through its boards or General Assembly 
toward planting missions in that country. 

In 1841 McGown returned to Texas. God wonderfully blessed 
the meetings held by Cumberland Presbyterians in different parts 
of that Republic. It was like life from the dead. The Texas 
Presbytery, after being ready to disband, was now ready to extend 
its work. In 1842 it asked for and obtained the order for the 
formation of Texas Synod. This synod was organized in March, 
1843. ^ was made up of the Texas Presbytery, whose members 
were Sumner Bacon, Milton Moore, Milton Estill, and R. O. 
Watkins; the Red River Presbytery, whose members were Mitch- 
ell Smith, James McDonnold, Robert Gilkerson, and Samuel 
Corley; and the Colorado Presbytery, whose members were A. J. 



272, Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period in. 

McGown, J. M. Foster, and F. B. Foster. In 1837 our people had 
three preachers and four churches in Texas. In 1842 there were 
three presbyteries and eleven ministers; and churches, which had 
been planted amid the horrors of a civil war, had grown up in all 
parts of the Republic. 

It will be seen from this little sketch that Cumberland Presby- 
terians had the start of all other Protestants on Texas soil. They 
had the first preacher, the first camp - meeting, the first church 
judicature, and the first religious newspaper in that field. Texas, 
made a State of the Union in 1846, with a territory sufficient to 
sustain over thirty millions of people, with soil of unsurpassed 
fertility, and resources varied and inexhaustible, with a rapidly 
growing population, is an inviting field for our people. Among 
the martyrs who died to rescue this country from Mexican misrule 
were the sons of the Cumberland Presbyterian church; and the 
ministers of this church were with the patriots at San Jacinto. Our 
people have historic and traditional advantages which ought to 
give them ready access to the hearts of Texans as long as the 
Alamo and San Jacinto are remembered. 

Table of Texas Dates. 

182 1 to 1827. Colonization by Missourians and other Anglo-Saxons. 
1828. Bacon preaches the first Protestant sermon in Texas. 
1833. Bacon, assisted by a Methodist preacher, holds the first camp- 
meeting. 

1835. Bacon ordained in Louisiana. The revolution begins. 

1836. Independence declared. McGown arrives. 

1837. Texas Presbytery organized. Arrival of Roark and Smith. 

1838. McDonnold, Frazier, and Moore arrive. Frazier dies. 

1839. Dark period. Invasions. 

1840. Roark returns to the United States. Watkins ordained. 

1841. The Fosters arrive. Great revival. 

1842. Organization of Texas Synod ordered. 
1846. Texas annexed to the United States. 



Chapter XXVIL] PENNSYLVANIA. 273 



CHAPTER XXVII 



ORIGIN OF THE CHURCH IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

My presence shall go with thee. 'Tis enough! 
Lead on, my heavenly guide; 



Enough for faith to hear thy voice, and see 
Thy own right hand in love upholding me. 

— Anna Shipton. 

IN 1829 a Presbyterian minister who held and taught the doc- 
trine of a general atonement lived on Ten Mile Creek, Wash- 
ington County, Pennsylvania. His name was Jacob L/indley. In 
the same presbytery was another minister .with equally liberal 
views about the provisions of divine grace. His name was Cor- 
nelius L/OUghran. The churches of these two men shared in these 
views, as did several other Presbyterian churches in western Penn- 
sylvania. When the outline of Cumberland Presbyterian doctrines 
appeared in Buck's Theological Dictionary, many of these people 
read it with intense interest. 

Two agents for Cumberland College, the Rev. M. H. Bone and 
the Rev. John W. Ogden, whose commission embraced the whole 
United States, extended their labors into western Pennsylvania. 
They began their mission in June, 1829. Smith's history says of 
them : 

They spent the following summer and autumn in the State of Ohio 
and in western Pennsylvania, preaching with power and demonstration 
of the Spirit, especially in Ohio, where through their instrumentality 
many souls found redemption. Their mission paved the way for the 
opening of a door for extensive usefulness to the church in Ohio, west- 
ern Pennsylvania, and New York. In January, 1831, by request of a 
congregation of Presbyterians in Washington County, Pennsylvania, 
five of its members wrote a letter to the president of Cumberland Col- 
lege, stating that they had lately heard of the existence of the Cumber- 
land Presbyterians in the West; that they had examined, in Buck's The- 
18 



274 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period in. 

ological Dictionary, the brief expose of their doctrines and discipline, 
which the congregation sincerely approved; that although they were 
members of the Presbyterian church, they could not adopt the whole of 
its Confession of Faith, and were solicitous to become better acquainted 
with the Cumberland Presbyterians, who were viewed by them as their 
brethren in Christ Jesus. They requested that the president should 
adopt some measures to provide them, at least for a short time, with the 
ministrations of a Cumberland Presbyterian missionary. Mr. Cossitt 
informed them that he would lay their case before the next General 
Assembly, and urge upon that body to meet with their wishes on the 
subject. To this the committee replied: " Immediately on the receipt 
of yours, we called a meeting of the congregation, and, having read 
your letter to them, they expressed their gratification at the prospect of 
becoming better acquainted with the Cumberland Presbyterian minis- 
ters. They entreated us to continue our correspondence with you, and 
to renew the request that your Assembly would send us a missionary for 
a short time. Should you succeed, we wish you to inform us as early 
as possible; and, if practicable, we are solicitous for him to reach here 
by the first of June, which will enable us (should we agree with you in 
faith and practice) to obtain our dismission from the Presbyterian 
church at the session of presbytery which meets about the middle of 
that month. We are also authorized to state that our minister heartily 
approves of our procedure, and will with us attach himself to your 
body as soon as an opportunity offers. 1 We think that nine tenths of 
our sister congregations of the Presbyterian church believe as we do, 
and for some time, especially since two of your preachers were in 
Washington, an anxious desire has been manifested by them to become 
better acquainted with your ministry. Many who make no profession 
of religion are solicitous for your ministers to operate in this country; 
and we believe that if your Assembly will send us one or more zealous 
preachers, they will prove a great blessing to the church of Christ. 
We do request that you will press the matter upon the General Assem- 
bly with as much ardor as possible." 

These documents, together with others of the same nature from the 
western section of the State of New York, were laid before the Gen- 
eral Assembly of 1831. The Assembly viewed these pressing calls as 
an intimation that the Head of the Church was opening a more exten- 
sive field of labor to the Cumberland Presbyterian ministry, and ap- 
pointed Alexander Chapman, Robert Donnell, Reuben Burrow, John 
Morgan, and A. M. Bryan missionaries to visit the congregations that 
had applied for the ministrations of Cumberland Presbyterians. Imme- 



1 This congregation was without a pastor when the missionaries arrived 



Chapter XXVII.] PENNSYLVANIA. 275 

diately after their appointment, Chapman, Morgan, and Bryan pro- 
ceeded to western Pennsylvania. Donnell and Burrow passed through 
North Carolina and Virginia, and in the autumn met the others in the 
vicinity of Washington, Pennsylvania. An extract from a letter to Mr. 
Cossitt from a member of the Pennsylvania congregation that had ap- 
plied for a Cumberland Presbyterian missionary, exhibits the reception 
of the missionaries by that people, and the success of their first labors: 
"Messrs. Chapman, Bryan, and Morgan reached us about three weeks 
ago, and were received with joy and thankfulness. Their first business 
was to declare their doctrinal views. This they did with such clearness 
and perspicuity, that almost all who heard them appeared to be con- 
vinced that their peculiarities were founded on the word of God, and 
none were disposed to controvert. Having declared their peculiar 
views, they dropped non-essentials, and commenced preaching Christ 
and him crucified. This they did with such power and demonstration 
of the Spirit, that many were cut to the heart. At the close of the 
sixth sermon preached by them, Mr. Morgan invited all who desired to 
obtain an interest in the blood of Christ, to distinguish themselves by 
meeting him before the stand, and to our astonishment forty-two went 
forward, and at this time more than a hundred have thus distinguished 
themselves. God has often revived his work among us here, but we 
have never before witnessed any thing to compare with the blessed 
work which is now in progress among us through the instrumentality 
of these missionaries from the West." 

John Morgan gives this account of the work: 

Messrs. Bryan and Morgan, after visiting and preaching at many 
points on the way, reached Washington, Pennsylvania, July 14, 183 1. 
At this time there was not a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian 
church in any part of the State of Pennsylvania. The Methodist 
brethren received us kindly, to some of whom we had introductory let- 
ters from the. Rev. C. Cook, a Methodist preacher then stationed in 
Wheeling, Virginia. We preached several sermons in the Methodist 
Episcopal church in Washington, then under the pastoral care of the 
Rev. John Waterman, who received and treated us in a most courteous 
and Christian manner. Nothing of special interest occurred at this 
time under the preaching at Washington. In a few days a committee 
from those persons who had written to Dr. Cossitt asking for missiona- 
ries waited on us, and told us an appointment had been published for 
one of us to preach on Wednesday, the 20th of July, in the afternoon, 
at a small church belonging to the Methodists, called Mount Zion, about 
twelve miles from Washington. Mr. Bryan was now quite unwell. 
Mr. Morgan accompanied the committee to the place appointed, where 



276 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period hi. 

we found a large and promiscuous crowd of people, all anxious to hear 
what these Cumberland Presbyterian preachers would say. The Rev. 
Jacob Lindley, then pastor of a Presbyterian church in that neighbor- 
hood, was present, and after receiving an introduction to " the strange 
preacher," was invited to take a seat in the pulpit, which he did very 
cordially. During the sermon there was nothing remarkable but a 
fixedness of attention on the part of every hearer, and many tears from 
many eyes, which bespoke the searching influence of gospel truth. 
Mr. Lindley closed the meeting with an unusually feeling and powerful 
prayer, the tears streaming from his eyes all the time. 

An appointment was then made for preaching the next Sabbath in 
a sugar camp in that neighborhood. We had no meeting-houses of 
course; and, indeed, if we had had, unless they had been large enough 
to cover from a half acre to an acre of ground, they would have been of 
but little use to us, so large were the crowds that attended. Sabbath 
came, and the people from all directions came pouring into the sugar 
camp, a most delightful and beautiful spot, and one now dear to many 
hearts from the recollection of what it pleased the Lord to do for them 
in that place. 

By this time Father Chapman had reached us, who was a most 
precious instrument in the hands of God in winning souls to Christ. 
Our hearts were cheered by this valuable accession of ministerial help. 
Mr. Bryan was still unable to preach, though convalescent, and in a few 
days was able to join our feeble band. 

The hour for preaching arrived. Mr. Morgan preached, and was 
succeeded by Mr. Chapman immediately with another sermon. During 
the preaching a deep solemnity pervaded the vast assembly. All was 
still and orderly however, only that one lady fell from her seat as if she 

had fainted. Dr. B , being on the ground, was called to her, but 

was unable to determine the nature of her disease — a strong mark of 
the doctor's discriminating medical judgment — for, indeed, it was a case 
which demanded the presence and skill of the Physician of souls, to 
whom she made fervent application in prayer, and was made every 
whit whole. 

In the afternoon of that day we preached at a private house (Mr. 
Marsh's), where the mighty power of the Holy Ghost was realized by 
all present. Christians were melted into penitence and thankfulness, 
many of the unconverted were cut to the heart, and some cried out, 
"Sirs, what must we do to be saved." It was manifest the Lord had 
begun a great and good work among the people. We continued 
preaching from house to house and grove to grove every day during 
the whole week, and convictions multiplied daily in every direction. 

The people in the neighborhood had enjoyed religious instruction 



Chapter XXVII.] PENNSYLVANIA. 277 

under Presbyterian influence during all their lives. No people could be 
more opposed to noisy excitements than they were. . . . Their exer- 
cises were not the result of education in favor of such things, but of the 
mighty power of the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. 

Many of the ministers and members of the Presbyterian church 
had received information that we were coming to this country, and had 
taken timely measures to prevent their people from hearing us preach. 
But this only increased their anxiety to hear what we had to say, and go 
they would. One would be the means of another's going. All who 
went seemed to have their prejudices greatly abated, and became more 
and more anxious to go again, and to have others go. The very means 
intended to hedge up our way only tended to build us up, and taught 
us this very important lesson, that gag laws and proscriptive acts will 
never answer the purposes of those who enact them among a free peo- 
ple. They tend directly to promote the things they are intended to 
defeat. 

The first Presbyterian minister to open his church to the mis- 
sionaries was the Rev. Mr. Dodd, of ' ' the Brick church. ' ' He had 
heard them preach, and he gave them a hearty invitation to hold a 
meeting in his congregation. Many members of this church after- 
ward joined the Cumberland Presbyterians. Philip and Luther 
Axtell, both faithful and. beloved ministers of our church in west- 
ern Pennsylvania, w x ere sons of one of these members. 1 It is said 
that when a large part of this flock joined "the heretics," and the 
Presbyterian congregation ceased to exist, the remnant preferred 
tearing down the house to letting the Cumberland Presbyterians 
use it. 

The next invitation came from Jacob Lindley, of Ten Mile. 
The meeting in Mr. Lindley' s congregation is minutely described 
by Mr. Morgan. When ' ' mourners ' ' were called for, seventy-five 
responded. Some of the old elders began to oppose the work, but 
the pastor encouraged the missionaries. Mr. Morgan says: 

In the arrangement for preaching on Monday Mr. Chapman was 
appointed to occupy the pulpit at 11 o'clock a.m. He preached from 
the text, "Strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto 
life, and few there be that find it." His manner was naturally agreea- 
ble, his person dignified and commanding, his voice clear, strong, and 
musical. He seldom preached without leaving a deep sense of religious 

1 Luther Axtell died March 23, 1SS6. 



278 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period in. 

» 

awe upon the minds of his hearers, but on this occasion he far sur- 
passed himself. He became awfully sublime in his descriptions of the 
sinner's danger and of the love of God in Christ to a perishing world. 
The house was large, and crowded full of people. Every eye was 
fixed on the preacher during the whole discourse; every heart melted; 
not one careless person could be seen in all the crowd. The service 
closed very happily, leaving a favorable impression on every heart. 

After a recess of thirty minutes or more the people came together 
again. Mr. Morgan was to preach. After reading a lrvmn he remarked 
that some thought the anxious had been called forward the evening be- 
fore under too much excitement; and to prevent this charge being made 
again, he was going to invite them forward at the very commencement 
of the service, before singing or prayer, and without making any appeal 
to their feelings. The seats being prepared, one hundred and two came 
forward. A more moving scene has seldom been witnessed. When 
their sons and daughters and neighbors of all ages, from the children 
of but ten to men and women of seventy years of age, from the most 
intelligent and moral down to the most ignorant and profligate, were 
seen deliberately coming forward in the public assembly deeply affected 
with a sense of their lost condition, even many of those who had found 
fault before now melted and said, "It is the Lord, let him do what 
seemeth him good." A most powerful and general revival of religion 
ensued. Hundreds were hopefully converted to God, and Christians 
of different sects were revived and stirred up to take a deep and lively 
interest in the promotion of the Redeemer's kingdom. 

In regard to the formation of the first Cumberland Presbyterian 
church in that State Mr. Morgan says: 

After having preached some time, and the work having progressed 
to a considerable extent, those individuals who had applied for mission- 
aries to be sent desired the formation of a church. To this the minis- 
ters replied, "We do not expect to remain in this country; we wish to 
return South." This, however, was strongly objected to, and the 
strongest appeals made to induce them to remain. To this they did not 
consent until late in the fall of 1831. 

The first church was organized on the 18th of August, 1831. The 
appointment had been previously made for preaching and the organi- 
zation of the church Many people came, some from a considerable 
distance: some to join the church, and others to see who would join. 
The service was held in a beautiful grove on the premises of William 
Stockdale, Washington County, Pennsylvania. The minister arose and 
read this beautiful text, " For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, 
for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth." 



Chapter XXVII.] PENNSYLVANIA. 2/9 

When he closed his sermon, it seemed that all present had imbibed 
the sentiment expressed by the apostle. I do not now remember the 
number who associated themselves together at this meeting as a church, 
but the number was large, and the promptness and zeal manifested 
showed that they were in good earnest, and understood what they were 
doing. This little band grew rapidly in numbers, zeal, and usefulness. 
The circumstances under which this church was organized were 
truly trying. Think of a people publicly adopting the religious views 
of a denomination which they had but very recently known, and 
against which rumor, with her ten thousand tongues, was scattering 
abroad every kind of slander that prejudice and bigotry could invent. 
Add to this the fact that there was not another congregation of the 
same church within five hundred miles, and it will be plain that it re- 
quired strong faith and unshaken confidence in God, and in the power 
of his truth, which they believed they were adopting, to enable them 
to take the step they did. 

Mr. Morgan describes the first camp-rneeting held by our mis- 
sionaries in Pennsylvania in these words: 

Cases of deep awakening had become so numerous, and the subjects 
were so remote from each other, that the missionaries thought best to 
propose holding a camp-meeting as the best method of getting them 
together, and of bringing them more directly and effectually under the 
influence of the means of grace. But the idea of a camp-meeting was 
shocking to most of the people in that neighborhood. They urged that 
it would be impolitic — look too much like the Methodists. Such meet- 
ings, in their opinion, were calculated to produce disorder in worship, 
and bring religion into disrepute. To this the missionaries replied that 
there was nothing peculiar in camp-meetings further than the fact that 
the people stay on the ground and do not return home after one service 
is. over; that there was nothing in this calculated to produce disorder, 
that it was this remaining on the ground, secluded from domestic and 
worldly cares, worldly company and influences, which give camp- 
meetings their chief advantage over other meetings; that more people 
could be thus brought together and kept on the spot where the means 
of grace are brought to bear directly and continuously upon the mind. 
They insisted that, under proper regulations, camp-meetings might be 
conducted with as good order and as much religious dignity as any 
other. After many meetings and much conversation on the subject, it 
was decided to hold a camp-meeting. The first Sunday in September, 
1831, was the time agreed on. The people went to the ground to make 
the necessary preparations. The pulpit was erected of boards, and 
made large enough to contain nearly a dozen persons. Before it seats for 



280 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period in. 

the accommodation of many hundreds were arranged. Tents made of 
logs, boards, and canvas were arranged so as to form a hollow square 
of about an acre of ground. Two hundred and fifty families tented on 
the ground, one hundred wagons and carriages stood round the encamp- 
ment. The services commenced on Thursday evening with a lecture 
on the duties of Christians on such occasions. Friday was observed as 
a day for fasting and prayer. The services from the beginning were 
unusually interesting and solemn. Christians were in the spirit, and 
abounded in prayer. The irreligious were attentive, and scores of anx- 
ious souls who had been awakened before came here to ask what they 
must do to be saved, and to seek an interest in the blood of Christ. 
The power of the Lord was present to heal, and there were happy con- 
versions at the commencement of the meeting. The concourse grew 
larger every day until Sunday, when the number present was estimated 
at from five to seven thousand people. We have attended many meet- 
ings, but this surpassed any we had seen. Several times when the 
anxious were invited forward, two hundred and fifty were counted on 
the seats at one time. Not one light, trifling countenance was to be 
seen in all the crowd. Convictions for sin were more general, deeper, 
and more rational than we had ever before noticed, and conversions 
were the clearest, and attended with the most overwhelming joy and 
peace. It was common to see persons of age and intelligence, over- 
whelmed by a sense of their sins, in the deepest anguish of soul as* if 
they could not possibly live. From this sad and affecting state they 
would seem all of a sudden to awake into light and life and joy the 
most ecstatic and indescribable. We can never recur to those blessed 
scenes but with the deepest emotions. 

Three hundred conversions were reported to the church paper 
at the time. Jacob Lindley, who was a Presbyterian, says 1 that 
the missionaries had such a hold upon the sympathies of the young 
converts that nearly all of them would have joined the Cumber- 
land Presbyterian church had the opportunity then and there been 
given; and that, in view of this fact, the missionaries proposed the 
plan of waiting four weeks, and then having the officers of all the 
cooperating congregations meet the converts at Mr. Lindley 's 
church for the purpose of receiving members. As a large number 
of the converts were members of Mr. Lindley' s Sunday-school, 
this measure saved his congregation from heavy loss. In four 
weeks all had time to think soberly, and Mr. Lindley received one 

1 Manuscript autobiography, p. 221, et seq. 



Chapter XXVII.] PENNSYLVANIA. 28l 

hundred of the converts into his church. According to Mr. Bind- 
ley this was not the only time that these missionaries might easily 
have taken advantage of the tide of popular sympathy and carried 
whole congregations into the Cumberland Presbyterian church. 
He mentions four other instances in which they refused to take 
such advantage, and he testifies most earnestly to their disinter- 
ested love of souls, and their freedom from all partisan and secta- 
rian motives. He wrote this testimony while he was still a mem- 
ber of the Presbyterian church, and he says that he had no expec- 
tations at that time of ever becoming a Cumberland Presbyterian. 

The foregoing description of this first Pennsylvania camp-meet- 
ing was published by Mr. Morgan in 1840. There is another 
account of these events which was written by Mr. Morgan, and 
published in the church paper the same year in which they 
occurred. There is also a manuscript account of this meeting 
written by Reuben Burrow. From these sources we learn that the 
meeting continued seven days, and that such crowds of people 
gathered on Sunday that no one man's voice could reach them all. 
Though the services were out of doors, yet two sermons were 
preached simultaneously. Donnell preached at the stand where 
there were seats, and Morgan under the trees where no seats were 
prepared. 

Among other interesting incidents Mr. Morgan tells about the 
conversion of an old man who just before the beginning of this 
camp-meeting became so violent in his opposition to the missiona- 
ries, and so enraged because some members of his family had 
joined the Cumberland Presbyterians, that in a drunken fit he 
attempted to kill his wife. With his gun in his hand he drove 
the family away from home, and remained for three days alone in 
his house raging and blaspheming. But at the end of this time 
he sent for his family to return, and, to their astonishment, they 
found him praying. He asked to be taken to the camp-meeting, 
which was to begin the next day. He was unable to walk, but 
supported by his two sons he appeared on the camp-ground early 
in the morning before the services began. He went to the preach- 
ers' tent and implored their forgiveness, begging them to pray for 
him. He professed conversion that day, and soon afterward joined 



28z Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period in. 

the church, and continued a consistent and worthy Christian until 
his death. 

This first camp-meeting was held in the neighborhood of the 
church now known as Concord. When this camp-meeting was 
just beginning, Burrow and Donuell arrived. Burrow was sick, 
but Donnell preached throughout the meeting. There are old 
people still living who describe his wonderful discourses, quoting 
the very texts and giving many of the main points of the sermons. 
Several of these aged members seem to be deeply imbued with the 
spirit which reigned in that first camp-meeting. This church is 
not on the same spot where the meeting in the grove of sugar trees 
was held, but is in the same neighborhood. This first camp-meet- 
ing silenced all 'the objections to such meetings, and another was 
soon held in another neighborhood. 

This incident is related about Burrow. He and Donnell made 
an agreement that if either one felt specially impressed to preach 
on some particular subject when the other happened to be the one 
appointed to preach, the fact was to be made known, and the one 
appointed to preach was to give way. While they were in Penn- 
sylvania, Burrow was appointed to preach on a certain day. All 
the morning, in prayer and study, he had struggled in vain to get 
hold of some text, some old sermon or new sermon which he could 
take an interest in, but every thing was dark. He could not decide 
on any text. In this state of mind he went into the pulpit The 
introductory services were over, and he rose to his feet, but still 
utterly in the dark as to what his text or sermon should be. He 
opened the Bible and began reading a chapter, his heart crying 
meanwhile to God for some gleam of light. While he was read- 
ing, Donnell pulled him by the coat, and said : ' ' Reuben, I think 
God wants me to preach to-day." Burrow said afterward that if 
ever his heart went out to God in thanksgiving it was then; and 
that of all the many powerful sermons he had heard Robert Don- 
nell preach, that was the most powerful. 1 All the first Cumber- 
land Presbyterian preachers believed that God gave special indica- 
tions of his will in such matters, and they were very careful to 
obey those indications. 

1 Conversations with Dr. Burrow. 



Chapter XXVII.] PENNSYLVANIA. 28 



O 



There were enough, of the missionaries to hold meetings simul- 
taneously in different places. The Rev. A. M. Bryan was the first 
to work in Pittsburg. No church was opened to him ; but he 
preached on the streets and elsewhere, and soon won many friends. 
In the church paper, The Religions and Literary Intelligencer, 
the missionaries gave regular reports of their work. There were 
reported by them for the whole period of their first mission, June 
to November, 1831, about eight hundred conversions. These let- 
ters state that the only obstacle in the way of forming Cumberland 
Presbyterian congregations throughout that field was the impossi- 
bility of supplying them with preaching. Two of the missionaries 
had made up their minds to make Pennsylvania their permanent 
home, and the number of churches was limited by this scanty 
prospect for the means of grace. The congregations organized 
were one at Washington with fifty members, one twelve miles 
from Washington ivith two hundred members, another in Wash- 
ington county with forty members, and another in the town of 
Jefferson with fifty- two members. x 

The Rev. Mr. Loughran, who preached the doctrine of a general 
atonement, had ministered to the Presbyterians of Waynesburg. 
He afterward became a Cumberland Presbyterian. In November, 
183 1, Mr. Morgan, just before he returned temporarily to the 
South, and after the other missionaries had gone, assisted Bryan 
in a meeting in Waynesburg, and they organized a small church 
in that place. It had but twenty- two members. 

In the autumn of 1831, Burrow, Donnell, and Chapman returned 
to the South. Morgan remained till late in December, and then 
he returned. Bryan was now alone, but before December passed 
away the Rev. Milton Bird arrived. The reports published by the 
missionaries had stirred the whole church. Mr. Bryan had made 
up his mind to make Pennsylvania his permanent field of labor, 
and although Morgan went South in December, it was only to 
make his arrangements for a permanent settlement in Pennsyl- 
vania. 

All the missionaries jointly addressed a letter to Green River 

1 This is taken from the official report of their work, made by the missionaries. 
The names of the churches are not given in that report. 



284 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period hi. 

Synod, whose jurisdiction extended indefinitely northward, pray- 
ing for the organization of a presbytery in Pennsylvania. This 
letter was sent to the synod before the missionaries left that State. 
It was published October 20, 1831. In the same month Green 
River Synod passed the order for the formation of the presbytery. 
It was at first called Washington, and included the States of New 
York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. Its original members were to be 
William Harris, Alexander Chapman, A. M. Bryan, and Milton 
Bird. Friday before the first Sabbath in May, 1832, was set for its 
first meeting. That Chapman and Harris went horseback from 
Kentucky to Pennsylvania, simply to constitute this Presbytery, 
and that they did so at their own expense, was nothing at all 
remarkable then. The Rev. S. M. Aston was also at this meeting 
with his letter ready to join the presbytery as soon as it was 
organized. It was his purpose, also, to make this field his perma^ 
nent home. 

In the manuscript autobiography of the Rev. Le Roy Woods is 
an interesting account of Mr. Morgan's efforts to secure help for 
Pennsylvania. Morgan visited the presbyteries pleading for men. 
His zeal was a naming fire. He had long private conferences with 
the young preachers on this subject. With arguments, appeals, 
and tears he labored to enlist recruits for the Pennsylvania work. 
The Rev. S. M. Sparks and the Rev. Le Roy Woods finally con- 
sented to accompany Mr. Morgan. The Assembly of 1832 com- 
missioned all three of these men to go as missionaries to Penn- 
sylvania. 

We have in Mr. Woods' manuscript another glimpse of the 
habits of that time. He bought horse, saddle, and bridle on a 
credit, borrowed money for traveling expenses, and, on the 4th day 
of June, 1832, he and his comrades set out on their long journey. 
They reached their destination on the 7th of July. Mr. Woods 
was appointed to preach to the Greene County churches, and he 
puts on record his grateful acknowledgment of the liberality of this 
people — especially those of Carmichaels. His debts back in Ten- 
nessee were promptly paid, % and all his financial wants fully pro- 
vided for. Mr. Woods also puts on record a noble tribute to his 
wife's helpfulness to him in all his ministerial life. She was a 



Chapter XXVII.] PENNSYLVANIA. 285 

daughter of the Rev. Jacob Lindley. Mr. Woods married her after 
he went to Pennsylvania. He gained that, as well as other bene- 
fits, by his mission. 

The manuscript autobiography of the Rev. Jacob Lindley 
shows what were his own relations to this mission. He had been 
president of the University of Ohio; but in 1831 was the pastor of 
a very large country church in western Pennsylvania. He says 
that he had heard the statement often that the " Cumberlands " and 
" Schismatics, ' ' or "New Lights," were the same body. He had 
met with the Schismatics, and had no use for them. When, there- 
fore, he learned that missionaries from the Cumberland Presby- 
terian church were to hold meetings in his country, and within 
reach of the lambs of his flock, he was filled with alarm. That the 
missionaries were men of power only increased his apprehensions. 
He determined to prepare for battle. First, he took up the records 
of his own General Assembly and other works, and studied the his- 
tory of the case. This study amazed him. The "Cumberlands" 
and "New Lights" had nothing in common. They originated in 
different parts of the country, at different times, and had never 
affiliated. They were not alike in doctrines, polity, or history. 
The Cumberland Presbyterians, he was surprised to find, had a 
Confession of Faith. He had been told that they denounced all 
human creeds. What still more surprised him was that they held 
that very same system of doctrines which he had avowed to his 
presbytery, at the time of his ordination, thirty years before, and 
which he had been preaching ever since without any charge of 
heresy being brought against him. Still more, he saw clearly that 
the final cause of the separation of the "Cumberlands" from his 
church was an unconstitutional usurpation of a presbytery's rights. 
He was puzzled. 

When he met the missionaries and heard them preach he could 
find nothing to condemn in their doctrine or their methods, but 
was, on the contrary, fully convinced that they sought only God's 
glory, and would never harm a single lamb of his flock. Morgan 
especially won him. He took the missionaries to his own house 
and joined his session in inviting them to preach in his church. 
He gives us a full account of the meeting which they proceeded 



286 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period in. 

to hold, and mentions some gray -headed infidels who were brought 
under the power of the gospel. After the camp-meeting, in which 
Mr. lyindley cooperated, the missionaries held a second series of 
meetings in his church, in which there were nearly a hundred con- 
verts. 

When Mr. lindley went to the meeting of his presbytery that 
fall he took Mr. Morgan with him. The presbytery gave him and 
Morgan both the ' ' cold shoulder. ' ' When ministerial reports were 
called for, Mr. Bindley was questioned very closely about his coop- 
eration with "excommunicated heretics." When he, in his an- 
swers, quoted a passage from the Cumberland Presbyterian Confes- 
sion of Faith, the moderator stopped him, saying, "They have no 
Confession of Faith, but denounce all such things. ' ' Mr. Lindley 
produced a copy, greatly to the moderator's confusion. When 
attention was called to the action of the Presbyterian General 
Assembly of 1825, ln which intercourse with Cumberland Presby- 
terians was placed on the same footing as intercourse with other 
evangelical denominations, the moderator and the members gen- 
erally denied that there had ever been any such action. Mr. Bind- 
ley then produced the Minutes of that Assembly, and had the words 
referring to this subject read. The moderator said he felt it 
to be the duty of all good Presbyterians to scout those heretical 
fanatics from the face of the earth. The presbytery then passed 
an order directing ' ( the session of Upper Ten Mile congregation to 
close the doors against Cumberland preachers." A committee was 
also appointed to visit this congregation with a view to bringing it 
to order. 

Mr. Lindley says he still had not formed the purpose of joining 
the Cumberland Presbyterians, but was in favor of appealing to 
higher courts, feeling sure that the General Assembly would set 
matters right. The course pursued by the committee which vis- 
ited his church, taken in connection with the fact that there were 
among his people many anxious inquirers after salvation, finally 
led both him and his congregation to go together into the Cum- 
berland Presbyterian church. That church is now called Bethel. 
The fruit of its Presbyterian training is still seen in Bethel congre- 
gation, as also in Concord. They keep a pastor, and pay him. 



Chapter XXVII.] PENNSYLVANIA. 287 

But they show also the true revival spirit which belonged to Mor- 
gan and Chapman. Old Presbyterian training, grafted on Cum- 
berland Presbyterian zeal, makes the very best church members. 
Pennsylvania and Ohio furnish examples of our noblest congrega- 
tions. These are, all of them, of Presbyterian antecedents. 

Jacob Iyindley found in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church 
his own sphere of usefulness, and he worked among the people 
with marked success until the day of his death. The second wife 
of the Rev. Robert Donnell was his daughter. Dear ' 'Aunt Clara, ' ' 
loved by many in all parts of the church, sought by the young 
people for her genial company, sought by true Christians for her 
holy counsels, sought by ministers for her wide knowledge of 
church affairs, has bequeathed a sacredness to the name of Athens, 
Alabama, where she lived and died, and has left a pattern from 
which Christian womanhood may take many a lesson. Mr. lyind- 
ley's other daughters were all noble Christian women. His son 
went to Africa as missionary. Mr. Lindley's book called, "Infant 
Philosophy, " is a valuable treatise on the right mode of training 
children. It ought to be republished. 

The church at Carmichaels, organized August 20, 1832, has 
ever been one of the most active of our congregations. Greene 
Academy, the first Cumberland Presbyterian church school in 
Pennsylvania, was located there. This congregation has from the 
first kept its own pastor. It has done much for missions, and is 
still liberal in its gifts for this purpose. An exceptionally long 
pastorate, for Cumberland Presbyterians, was that of the Rev. I. N. 
Carey. He served this congregation for sixteen years. 

The missionaries who remained in Pennsylvania soon had 
encouraging intimations of accessions to their force, and they 
went on organizing churches all through the western part of the 
State. Uniontown was one of these pioneer congregations. It 
was a sort of mother of churches. It still flourishes. The dust 
of John Morgan sleeps there. A college, once under the control 
of our people but never owned by them, was located there. Many 
of our good men have served that church as pastor. 

Rev. J. T. A. Henderson 1 relates the following incident which 

1 Henderson's MS. autobiography. 



288 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period in. 

occurred while he was serving as pastor here: He frequently visited 
in the home of an infidel whose family attended the church. This 
man would leave the house whenever he saw the preacher coming, 
but finally his poor health made it necessary for him to stay in the 
room during these visits. The preacher came and went several 
times without saying any thing to him on religious subjects, but at 
last ventured to ask him his views. The reply was that there was 
no truth in Christianity. The Bible, he said, was full of contra- 
dictions. Tom Paine had proved that abundantly. Mr. Hender- 
son asked him to point out some of these contradictions. Pie re- 
plied that he would hunt them up and show them at the preacher's 
next visit. The next visit came and the contradictions had not 
yet been found. The man was confident, however, that he would 
find them by the time the preacher came again. At the next visit 
the preacher asked him if he had yet found them. He said he had 
not, but he had found out that the Bible was a searcher of men's 
hearts and lives. It had shown him that he was a miserable, lost 
sinner. He was sure now that the book was from God. In a 
short time this man became an earnest Christian. 

This account is given of the origin of Hopewell congregation, 
Fayette County. The Methodists had a church named Hopewell, 
and they invited the missionaries to preach there. Bryan and 
Bird sent an appointment, and great multitudes attended. The 
pastor of a neighboring Presbyterian congregation was present, but 
refused to be introduced to the missionaries. Several sermons 
were preached, and very pressing invitations were given the mis- 
sionaries to make another visit. In about six weeks two of them 
came back, and their preaching was so popular that the Presby- 
terian elders felt constrained, by public opinion, to invite them 
to preach in their church. When the hour came for this sendee 
in the Presbyterian church the pastor took a back seat and still 
refused to be introduced to the visiting preachers. After some 
moments of painful suspense, Aaron Baird, uncle of A. J. Baird, 
whispered to one of the missionaries, ( ( you had as well be killed 
for an old sheep as a lamb. Knock all the hard points of Calvin- 
ism to pieces to-day." Then Mr. Ebenezer Finley, one of the 
elders, took Mr. Bryan by the arm and led him to the pulpit, and 



Chapter XXVII.] PENNSYLVANIA. 289 

placing a silver dollar in the preacher's hand said, u We want you 
to preach your own doctrine to-day and not feel the least restraint 
about it. ' ' An old man, describing that sermon many years after- 
ward, said that although he had been reared a ' ' Seceder ' ' of the 
straitest pattern, he was fully convinced before Bryan closed that 
discourse, that Christ died for every man. In a short time the mis- 
sionaries were urged by the new converts to organize a church in 
that neighborhood. This was done; and, in honor of the liber- 
ality of the Methodist Hopewell, the new Cumberland Presby- 
terian church was named Hopewell also. 

The Rev. J. T. A. Henderson, who served as pastor of the 
Hopewell church for many years, states in his manuscript auto- 
biography that his relations with this congregation were ever 
pleasant, and all his salary was ^promptly paid. He names, also, 
some men in this and the Salem congregation who, he says, were 
the purest men and the best Christians he ever knew. This he 
writes after a sojourn on earth of over eighty years. 

While the revival in which the Hopewell church had its origin 
was in progress, the missionaries were invited to hold meetings in 
the neighboring town of Brownsville. Bryan and Bird accepted 
the invitation, and spent two days there. Bird preached in the 
forenoon of the first day in the Methodist Episcopal church; Bryan 
preached in the evening. Crowds of people left their work to 
attend the services. A large number of penitents crowded the 
altar. The next day the services were held in the Episcopal 
church. During these two days many of the leading people of 
the town professed faith in Christ. No effort, however, was made 
to organize a congregation. The Cumberland Presbyterian church 
at this place was not organized until more than twelve years after- 
ward, September, 1844. 

In his missionary work, the Rev. A. M. Bryan 1 visited Mead- 
ville, Pennsylvania, to hold meetings. Not only were the churches 
and other public buildings closed against him, but the Presby- 
terian minister and some others canvassed the town from house 
to house to persuade the people not to give the " heretic" a hear- 
ing. They denied that Bryan had any right to preach or hold 

x The church paper, February 12. 1833 

*9 



290 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period in. 

services. Not at all moved by such opposition, lie held his 
meetings, partly on the streets, and partly in a private house. 
There were a great multitude of conversions, and Bryan organized 
a church with ninety-three members. Unfortunately, however 
there was no preacher to place in charge of such a flock. 

The Pittsburg church was organized by the missionaries in 
iZ>33> J onn Morgan officiating. The Rev. A. M. Bryan spent the 
best part of his life as pastor of this church. His ashes sleep 
there. From time to time Mr. Bryan reported in the church 
papers interesting revivals in his congregation. At one of these 
there were two hundred converts. If it be true that the poet is 
born, not made, it is equally true that A. M. Bryan was born a 
preacher and not made one. It is wonderful how any man, with 
no broad scholarship, could have had the pure style, the clear 
thoughts, the fine resources which Dr. Bryan always had in the 
pulpit. 

An anecdote, which still lingers about the home of Bryan's 
boyhood, is pertinent in this connection. When, as a candidate 
for the ministry, he was called on for his first trial discourse, he 
stated that he had no sermon, that he could not write one. That 
was in the days of authority, and the brows of the grave fathers 
portended a storm. It was expected that the boy would be treated 
as the sailors treated Jonah. Before the fatal vote was taken, his 
mother, who sat looking on with alarm, said to one of the 
preachers, U I tell you the boy can preach if he can't write. Ap- 
point a time and hear him try." It is said that the appointment 
was made, and the boy preached with such earnestness and fervor 
as to make all the reverend ecclesiastics weep. So he was retained 
on the roll of candidates. From that day to the day of his death 
A. M. Bryan never lost his power to move the hearts of all his 
hearers, old or young, lay or clerical. The Pittsburg church was 
his life's best work. 

When the Pennsylvania Presbytery met in October, 1833, it 
had twelve ordained ministers, three licensed preachers, and seven 
candidates. It had seventeen congregations and two thousand 
eight hundred members. Every preacher belonging to the presby- 
tery was then " living of the gospel." The records of no other 



Chapter XXVII.] PENNSYLVANIA. 291 

presbytery in the church furnish an instance like this. In the 
minutes of some of the presbyteries the record might be truthfully 
made that none of their preachers have ever lived of the gospel. 

On the 17th day of October, 1841, in the thirty-sixth year 
of his age, and the fourteenth of his ministry, the Rev. John 
Morgan passed through the golden gates to his Father's house. 
Of his work in Pennsylvania, Dr. Bird says ' * he traveled through 
the country like a flame of fire. ' ' Aged Christians who were con- 
verted under Mr. Morgan's first preaching in Alabama, still live 
and hold his memory in a reverence as sacred even as that felt for 
him in Pennsylvania. To the young churches in Pennsylvania 
the death of Morgan seemed an irreparable loss, but the great 
Father still led them on. Other good preachers were raised up, 
but among them all there was no other John Morgan. It was in 
1840 that Mr. Morgan began the publication of The Union and 
Evangelist, at Uniontown, Pennsylvania. It was a valuable little 
semi-monthly paper, but before he had been long in that work he 
received his summons from the King. After his death the Rev. 
Milton Bird took charge of the paper. 

At the close of this period Cumberland Presbyterians had two 
presbyteries in this State. This was the growth in ten years. The 
Union Presbytery was organized at Uniontown, Pennsylvania, 
April 14, 1837, the Rev. John Morgan being the first moderator. 
The Pennsylvania Synod, which was at first made up of Pennsyl- 
vania, Union, and Athens presbyteries, was organized at Union- 
town, October n, 1838. Allegheny Presbytery was not formed 
until 1847. In mission work and in . sustaining regular pastorates 
these Pennsylvania churches rank among the first in the denom- 
ination. They had to work throughout this first decade like 
Nehemiah's builders on the wall, sword in one hand and building 
implements in the other. Those who assailed them were, how- 
ever, the losers by this policy. Various slanderous misrepresen- 
tations of the doctrines and practices of Cumberland Presbyterians 
were published in Pittsburg during this period. That they were 
slanderous was triumphantly proved then, and there is no need of 
reviving the old bitterness. 



292 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period in. 



CHAPTER XXVIII 



ORIGIN OF OUR CHURCH IN OHIO. 

" And a little picture shall meet the eje, 
That dear hands painted in years gone by." 

—S. G. Prout. 

THE same agents of the church college who were the first 
Cumberland Presbyterian preachers in Pennsylvania also 
traveled through portions of Ohio in 1829 an( * 1830 holding meet- 
ings and soliciting help for the college. We have no history of 
their work except the general fact that their meetings often resulted 
in many conversions. It is known, also, that they did not, during 
this tour, attempt to organize any Cumberland Presbyterian church. 

The first Presbyterian church at Athens, Ohio, was organized 
by the Rev. Jacob L,indley. The college over which Mr. Iyindley 
long presided was also at that town. His interest for this commu- 
nity was so great that he entreated Mr. Morgan to visit Athens 
while on. his way South in 1831, promising to accompany him 
thither. To this Morgan agreed. They both met a warm welcome 
from the Presbyterian church at Athens, and also from its pastor, 
the Rev. Mr. Spaulding. Mr. Ivindley speaks in strong terms of 
Mr. Spaulding' s liberality. 1 Mr. Morgan tarried nine days, and 
preached eighteen sermons. Although it was winter, and bitter 
cold, the house was crowded, and there were forty-three profes- 
sions. 2 Here again, as Mr. Lindley testifies, Morgan resisted the 
young converts who wanted to be organized into a Cumberland 
Presbyterian church. 

Before Mr. Morgan's departure, pastor and people united in im- 
portuning him to come by Athens when he returned to Pennsyl- 
vania in the spring. He gave his promise, and kept it, too; but 
on his arrival he found a very great change. Mr. Spaulding called 

1 Lindley's MS. autobiography, from which this whole account is taken. 
■Fifteen of these afterward entered the ministry. 



Chapter XXVIII.] OHIO. 293 

on him and told him with deep mortification and sincere regret 
that his session had become alarmed at the ontcry for a Cumber- 
land Presbyterian church, and had resolved to close their doors 
against Morgan. A leading layman in the Presbyterian church 
then informed Mr. Morgan that the members of his church had 
secured the court-house for him to preach in. It was evident that 
a movement was on foot among these members to secede and join 
the Cumberland Presbyterians. Mr. Morgan at once declined to 
preach for them. He was then invited to preach in the Methodist 
church, which he did, and nearly all of the Presbyterians attended. 
At the close of his sermon that Sabbath, he was requested to 
attend a temperance meeting ten miles from Athens. To this 
request he acceded. The Rev. Mr. Hibbard, a Presbyterian, whose 
church was six miles distant from Athens, also obtained a promise 
from Mr. Morgan that he would attend his sacramental meeting, 
which was to be held the next Sabbath. Morgan left Athens 
Monday and held his temperance meeting in a grove. An im- 
mense concourse of people was gathered. A new distiller} 7 owned 
by two brothers was situated right at the place where this meeting 
was held. The lecture, though on temperance, was all of it in- 
tensely religious. The vast crowd was in tears, and Morgan, at 
the close of the lecture, called mourners. Many came. He ap- 
pointed preaching for the next day on the same spot. Before he 
closed the meeting one of the owners of the distillery and the 
wives of both of them were converted. The distillery was forever 
closed. O the power of God's Spirit is the true source of victory 
against rum and all other works of Satan. Instead of the distillery 
there arose a house of worship in a community where there had 
never been one before. 

At the meetings in Mr. Hibbard' s church the usual blessing of 
Heaven followed Mr. Morgan's preaching. About seventy souls 
professed to be saved. Mr. Morgan had some difficulty in convinc- 
ing the young converts that no Cumberland Presbyterian church 
could be organized for them. After he went on to Pennsylvania a 
large number of people who had attended the two meetings just 
described, wrote to him to come back and hold a camp-meeting. 
This he did, Mr. L,indley and his daughter accompanying him. 



294 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period in. 

This camp-meeting was held in Alexander township, six miles 
from Athens. It was here that the first Cnmberland Presbyterian 
church in Ohio was organized. At this camp-meeting the Rev. 
Mr. McAboy, of the Presbyterian church, saw his two sons con- 
verted. They both entered the ministry afterward, and their father 
from that camp-meeting till the day of his death, without chang- 
ing his ecclesiastical relations or having any charges preferred 
against him, not only adopted Cumberland Presbyterian measures, 
but preached Cumberland Presbyterian doctrines. His ministry 
was far more fruitful after he made these changes. 1 This first 
Ohio camp-meeting was prolific in its results. There were over a 
hundred conversions, and calls for Morgan's and I^indley's services 
poured in upon them from all the adjacent counties. Mr. Lind- 
ley relates several touching incidents of this camp-meeting. A 
certain militia captain, who was also dissipated, conspired with a 
number of rough men to break up the meeting. They entered 
into a regular organization for this purpose, and elected this militia 
officer as captain of their band. At the hour for services these 
men gathered under the trees near the place of worship. Mr. Mor- 
gan, before he began his sermon, invited penitents to come for- 
ward. Many Christian people rose to their feet and went out 
through the congregation trying to persuade their relatives to go 
to the mourner's bench. While this was going on, the brother-in- 
law of "the captain" came to Mr. Iyindley and requested him to 
go to that promoter of mischief. Mr. Lindley went, accompanied 
by the brother-in-law. On seeing those Christians approach him, 
the captain straightened himself up with a defiant look. Mr. 
Ivindley says that at that moment his own soul was overwhelmed 
with sympathy and an awful sense of this poor sinner's perilous 
state. So great were his emotions that utterance failed him, and 
for some time he could do nothing but weep. At length, finding 
the use of his tongue, he struggled with all his soul to warn the 
poor captain of his danger. Finally the hardened sinner burst 
into tears, fell upon Mr. Lindley' s neck, and asked that his wife 
should be brought. When she arrived she also burst into tears, 
and soon both husband and wife agreed to go to the mourner's 

'Lindley's MS. 



Chapter XXVIII.] OHIO. 295 

bench. As Mr. Lindley led them up to the place of prayer several 
of the gang of desperadoes followed. The captain had a hard 
struggle, but he and his wife both found peace in Jesus before the 
meetings closed. 

Another case deserves mention. An aged infidel attended the 
meeting, sitting afar off and watching. Finally his favorite son 
was converted, and with a face beaming with the light of heaven, 
started to find his father. When the old man saw his boy 
approaching, and looked into his illumined face and heard his 
tender, loving appeals, he was utterly broken down, and, falling to 
the earth, began crying aloud for mercy. Nor were his cries in 
vain. After some delay, and after a beloved minister had patiently 
instructed him in the way of salvation, he sprang up from the 
ground where he was lying and told to all around what a glorious 
light had dawned upon his soul. 

There was in this neighborhood a skeptic of unusual bitterness 
toward Christianity. He had an interesting daughter who was 
very anxious to attend the camp-meeting, but he would not permit 
her to do so. Mr. I^indley's daughter, L,ouisa, who had accompa- 
nied her father to this community, where she was well acquainted, 
visited this skeptic with a view to gaining permission for his daugh- 
ter to attend the camp-meeting. After many failures she finally 
won a conditional consent. The condition was that Louisa would 
solemnly promise him that his daughter should not go to the 
mourner's bench. The promise was made, and the young lady 
attended. Under Morgan's preaching she became overwhelmingly 
convicted, and when the call for mourners was made she wanted to 
go. Ivouisa went to Mr. Morgan for counsel. He told her to keep 
her promise, and to take the young lady off to some private place 
and pray with her there. This was done, and in a few moments 
the poor girl was rejoicing in the hope of glory, and ever afterward 
lived a consistent Christian. 

When a church was organized, at the close of this meeting, 
a congregation of Presbyterians in the neighborhood, who were 
without a pastor, formally seceded from the Presbyterians, and pro- 
posed to unite with this new congregation. Mr. Lindley received 
them, and became their temporary pastor, arranging with Mr. Mor- 



296 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period 111. 

gan to take care of Ten Mile until some permanent arrangement 
could be made for the Ohio flock. This was in the fall of 1832. 
The next spring Mr. Lindley returned to his Pennsylvania church. 
The Pennsylvania Presbytery supplied the Ohio congregations with 
itinerant preaching. These itinerants were changed frequently. 
The records show that nearly all the members of that presbytery 
were at one time or another appointed to this Ohio work. 

Mr. Lindley had been pastor of the Presbyterian church at Bev- 
erly, Ohio, before he took charge of the college at Athens. On 
his journey to his home in Pennsylvania, in the spring of 1833, 
he stopped at Beverly, and held a meeting. Great interest was 
manifested in his preaching, and fifty persons professed conver- 
sion. The Presbyterian church at Beverly, wdiich Mr. Lindley had 
organized long before, was at this time without a pastor, and its 
members passed a formal act, by unanimous vote, withdrawing 
from the Presbyterian church, and unanimously resolved to join 
the Cumberland Presbyterians, and call Mr. Lindley for their pas- 
tor. He accepted the call, and, after a brief visit to Pennsylvania, 
returned to Beverly, where he spent four years in charge of his 
old flock, preaching, as his elders put 011 record, the very same 
doctrines which he had preached thirty years before. 

Mr. Lindley said he found a state of moral death in all the coun- 
try surrounding Beverly. The people had little or no preaching, 
save in Marietta, the county town. Country pulpits were all va- 
cant, and Sabbath-schools had been abandoned. He therefore 
arranged with the Beverly church to be allowed to spend one 
fourth of his time as missionary to the surrounding country. With- 
in a circle of thirty miles he established a round of appointments 
for preaching. He tried to do pastoral work in all this vast dis- 
trict, as well as to preach regularly. He passed none by, calling at 
great houses and small. He says his sole aim was the salvation 
of these destitute souls. He took no written sermons. Pie went 
forth with his Bible and with a loving heart. He says he looks 
for sheaves from many a humble home which he visited in this 
strange field. 

In these missionary tours Mr. Lindley visited Senecaville, thirty 
miles from Beverly. There was a Presbyterian church there, but for 



Chapter XXVIII.] OHIO. 297 

a long time it had been without preaching. Mr. Lindley held an 
eight days' meeting, and had a great revival. The interest stirred 
the whole country for fifteen miles around. There were great 
numbers of conversions. The Lancaster Presbytery (Presbyte- 
rian), of which Mr. Lindley had been one of the original mem- 
bers, took the alarm. Mr. Lindley says all the members of this 
presbytery had the same false views about the identity of the Cum- 
berland Presbyterians and the New Lights which he himself had 
before he investigated the matter. Lancaster Presbytery sent a 
man to Senecaville to warn the people against the heretics. But 
he did not investigate the subject before commencing the battle. 
His attacks were against a man of straw. The good people of Sen- 
ecaville were much better informed about the Cumberland Presby- 
terians than he was, and they were disgusted at his ignorance and 
offended at his injustice. The members of that congregation felt 
themselves outraged by the severe censures poured out upon them. 
They met together and formally seceded from the Presbyterian 
church, and declared themselves Cumberland Presbyterians. This 
was in the summer of 1835. Mr. Lindley agreed to give one fourth 
of his time to this church until better provisions could be made. 

His first meeting under this new arrangement was to begin on 
a Friday. It happened that the circus was to be there that day. 
The gaudy show bills covered walls and fences. The show arrived 
on time. The great tent was stretched, the brass bands played, 
flags waved, and mottled harlequins danced on spotted animals as 
the procession moved around town. But the door-keeper who 
stood at the entrance of the tent took in not even one single ticket. 
Mr. Lindley had the crowd. After a little delay the circus tent 
was taken down, and managers and harlequins went on their way 
in great disgust, cursing Cumberland Presbyterians. 

An elder of the Presbyterian church, near the village of Cum- 
berland, attended the great revival at Senecaville. Pie earnestly 
pressed Mr. Lindley to hold a meeting in his town. This elder 
said the church at Cumberland was in a state of spiritual torpor. 
The house of worship was out of town, built there before the town 
existed. Mr. Lindley sent an appointment for a meeting in the 
town. A large unfinished dwelling-house, whose partitions were 



298 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period in. 

not yet erected, was used for this meeting. God revived his work. 
Many souls were converted; but the Presbyterian pastor stood aloof 
and opposed. Mr. Lindley visited him, and tried to win him, but 
failed to elicit the slightest expression of concern for the salvation 
of the unconverted; though the pastor did try to be polite, and 
played the violin beautifully for the entertainment of his visitor. 
Other engagements calling Mr. Lindley away, he sent the Rev. 
Isaac Shook to Cumberland, in 1835, and the latter organized a 
church of our people in that town. 

One of the towns in which the Rev. M. H. Bone (one of the 
college agents) preached was Lebanon, Ohio. He had a very 
interesting meeting there. The people begged him to remain and 
organize a church. This he could not then do. In 1835 he was 
earnestly importuned by letters from the Lebanon people to 
return. They had seen and learned still more of the ways and 
doctrines of the Cumberland Presbyterians, and were anxious to be 
identified with them. Mr. Bone, therefore, made another visit to 
that town. A congregation was organized, and he consented to re- 
main one year as their pastor. The same year he appointed a camp- 
meeting, and wrote for Hugh B. Hill and T. C. Anderson to assist 
him. J They both lived in Tennessee, but they responded promptly 
to Mr. Bone's appeal. Owing to failure in boat and stage connec- 
tions they arrived too late for the camp-meeting. 

Mr. Bone started a movement for building a meeting-house at 
Lebanon, but for some reason he gave up his charge and re- 
turned to the South. Before doing so, however, he obtained 
the consent of the Rev. Felix G. Black to take charge of the little 
church. Black was a pastor in the true sense, and did good service 
in this congregation. From eleven original members the church 
In three years grew to one hundred and thirty-eight. This growth 
was all under systematic and steady pastoral work. Mr. Black, in 
1838, published a good report from that congregation, showing its 
progress in all the departments of its work. It contributed system- 
atically to all the benevolent enterprises of the church. It paid its 
pastor's salary in full, and was spiritually alive and active. 

The old church bell at Lebanon has a curious history. When 

1 Manuscript autobiography of T. C. Anderson. 



Chapter XXVIII.] OHIO. 299 

Spain confiscated the property of the convents this bell was sent to 
New York and sold at auction. It brought two hundred dollars. 
It was cast in 1636 for a convent. It was the first church bell ever 
rung in Lebanon, but it now calls not nuns but Cumberland 
Presbyterians together. It has a Spanish inscription upon it call- 
ing on the Virgin to "pray for us." 

In 1833 there were supplies appointed by the Pennsylvania 
Presbytery for two Ohio churches — Waterford and Athens. In 
1834 supplies were appointed for four Ohio congregations — Athens, 
Alexander, Waterford, and McConnellsburg. The Rev. James 
Smith and the Rev. Joseph A. Copp, made a preaching tour 
through that State in the winter of 1833-4. Smith says the 
Presbyterian pulpits were everywhere closed against them. In 1835 
a grand forward movement was made by Cumberland Presbyterians 
in Ohio. The Rev. Isaac Shook spent that year in this field. T. 
C. Anderson and Hugh B. Hill were also there, as was S. M. 
Aston. Three or four of the ministers of Pennsylvania Presby- 
tery were also working part of their time in this field. Aston held 
a good meeting at Jacobsville, and organized a church there. 

The Covington congregation has an interesting history. When 
the Rev. F. G. Black succeeded Mr. Bone as pastor at Lebanon he 
found on the church-book the name of Benjamin Leavell. There 
was no such man living in Lebanon. On inquiry he learned that 
this was Judge Leavell, who lived fifty miles away. Owing to his 
dissatisfaction with the hard points of Calvinism he had with- 
drawn from the Presbyterian church and joined the Lebanon con- 
gregation, there being no other Cumberland Presbyterian church 
nearer his home. On receiving this information, Mr. Black 
mounted his horse and started on a pastoral visit fifty miles. He 
had to swim one canal before reaching his parishioner. The Judge 
told Mr. Black that before he heard of the Cumberland Presby- 
terians he had made out a system of theology for himself. On a 
business trip to Cincinnati he stopped to spend the Sabbath at 
Lebanon. Bone and others were holding a meeting there. He 
went to hear them. To his surprise and delight they preached his 
system of doctrine, a medium system between Calvinism and 
Arminianism. He therefore joined the new church. Then the 



300 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period m. 



Judge told his pastor about a town called ' ' Rowdy, ' * noted for its 
drunkenness and other vices, and induced him to visit the place 
and hold a meeting. The first services were in a little school- 
house. Other visits followed, and finally in 1838, Mr. Black 
organized a congregation. u Rowdy" is now Covington. The 
church there to-day numbers four hundred and nineteen members. 
It contributed to church enterprises last year (1885) ten thousand 
dollars. It keeps a regular pastor. Two faithful ministers have 
grown up among its members, the Rev. W. H. Black, of St. Louis, 
and the Rev. J. A. Billingsley. It has just built an elegant house 
of worship, and it maintains a high standing for liberality and 
efficiency in church work. 

The Cumberland Presbyterian church in Ohio has never been 
strong in numbers. There are at this time (1886) only three pres- 
byteries in the State; one with eight ordained ministers and no 
candidates, another with five ordained ministers and one candidate, 
and a third with four ministers and no candidate. Preaching on a 
call to the ministry, and praying the great Head of the church to 
call their ozvn sons to this holy work, are clearly the urgent duties 
of our Ohio ministry and people. A home supply of preachers and 
provisions for their education, would certainly improve the pros- 
pect of the church in that State. In this field, as well as several 
others, we have this strange phenomenon: Much larger donations 
have been made by some of our own members to the colleges of 
other churches than have ever been made to our own institutions. 



Chapter XXIX.] MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 301 



CHAPTER XXIX 



MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES AND INCIDENTS. 

" There is no wind but soweth seeds 
Of a more true and holy life, 
Which bursts, unlooked for, into high-souled deeds, 
With wayside beauties rife." 

AN account of the great revival at Bowling Green, Kentucky, 
deserves a place at the beginning of this chapter of miscel- 
laneous sketches. There was no Cumberland Presbyterian church 
at Bowling Green in 1833, and the presbytery refused to organize 
one, even w T hen pressed to do so, because no preacher could be 
spared from the itinerant work and located there ; and it was under- 
stood that a church in a large town could not be sustained by itin- 
erant preaching. Some of the preachers were willing, however, to 
hold a meeting there for the sake of souls; but it was announced 
beforehand that they would attempt no organization. Chapman, 
Lowry, Harris, and Lewis began meetings in the First Baptist 
church. Lowry did most of the preaching. By Monday the 
whole town was so stirred that shops, business houses, and law 
offices w^ere spontaneously closed for each service. There wxre 
three services a day. At these meetings some strange results, sim- 
ilar to those which so startled the people of Logan County, Ken- 
tucky, in 1799, manifested themselves. Men of strong frames 
fell to the ground and lay motionless for hours. One man was 
carried out and his friends sent for a physician. Mr. Lowry, how- 
ever, told them that he had seen many such cases and never knew 
any dangerous consequences to result. After a long delay the man 
rose with rapturous exclamations of joy and trust. An infidel 
attended this meeting and was seized with deep convictions. He 
went to the mourner's bench and offered up this prayer: "If there 
be any such person as the Lord Jesus Christ, I want him to have 
mercy on me, and save me. ' ' He at last found the Savior. 



302 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period in. 

These meetings continued seventeen days, and their influence 
swept over all the town and the surrounding country. All the 
Bowling Green churches received many valuable members. Mr. 
LrOwry was urged to organize a Cumberland Presbyterian church, 
but as he steadfastly adhered to his refusal many who would have 
entered into such an organization went into other churches. The 
now venerable Judge Burnum, of Bowling Green, was one of the 
converts at this meeting. The father of the Rev. J. M. Halsell 
was also among the converts. 

The Rev. J. B. McCallan, of Illinois, relates the following 
incident: In 1833 he was living in Calloway County, Kentucky. 
No religious services were held in all his neighborhood. He and 
his wife were both unconverted. A camp-meeting was to be held 
ten miles away. He and his wife both attended, walking all the 
way, and both were converted. On their return home they set up 
the family altar. Then Mr. McCallan began holding prayer-meet- 
ings in the neighborhood. A revival soon followed with numerous 
conversions. Then circuit riders were induced to make regular 
appointments for preaching in that neighborhood. In a short 
time the character of the whole community was changed. C. E. 
Hay was the first circuit rider who preached there, and he 
organized a congregation and ordained Mr. McCallan as one of 
its elders. 

A fair sample of the best Cumberland Presbyterian churches 
under the old supply system was the Concord congregation, West 
Tennessee. The boundaries of this congregation extended from 
Trenton, Tennessee, to the Mississippi River— sixty miles. The 
Rev. S. Y. Thomas was its preacher. His financial necessities 
once caused him to change his field, but the Concord people loved 
him, and they wrote to him proposing to give him a deed to four 
hundred acres of good land if he would come back and stay with 
them, and preach regularly one Sabbath in each month. He 
accepted the offer. Including his work before this arrangement 
was made, he served this church thirty-nine years, farming and 
preaching. A number of ministers have grown up in this congre- 
gation, among them several members of the Thomas family. Its 
camp-meetings were great occasions, and people attended from all 



Chapter XXIX.] MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 303 

parts of West Tennessee. Converts of these camp-meetings are 
fonnd in all parts of the chnrch. 

The Oak Grove congregation, Sumner County, Tennessee, 
organized 1836, which had Hugh B. Hill for its regular pastor, 
long kept up its annual camp-meetings. At one of these one hun- 
dred and seventy-five conversions were reported, and at another 
three hundred. At the camp-meeting held in 1840, Robert Don- 
nell and several other ministers from a distance were assisting. Of 
course the pastor did not expect to preach. Mr. Hill's father-in- 
law, then quite old, was not a Christian, and several members of 
his very large family were also unconverted. After the meetings 
had continued several days, Mrs. Hill saw her husband come into 
the tent ' ( pale as a sheet, ' ' and evidently in some deep soul-strug- 
gle. She went to him and asked what it was that troubled him; 
but he begged her to leave him alone, and fell upon the bed groan- 
ing. Mrs. Hill inquired of others, and learned that her father and 
another very old gentleman, both unconverted, had sent a special 
request for Mr. Hill to preach at the next service. Mr. Hill re- 
mained lying on his face till the hour for service, and then went to 
the pulpit. The two old men who had made the request sat in 
front near the pulpit. The realities of the eternal world were face 
to face with the preacher. Something more than that was with 
him. God's irresistible Spirit breathed through his lips and quiv- 
ered in his words. Hill always had a holy power in the pulpit, 
but this sermon, it is said, surpassed all his other efforts. The two 
old men, both past their threescore and ten, were brought into the 
joyous liberty of the sons of God. So, too, were many others. 1 

Hill devoted the whole of his life to the ministry, and owing to 
the meagerness of his salary and misfortunes brought on by the 
war, he died in comparative poverty. Loving friends erected a 
monument over his grave, near Murfreesboro, Tennessee. The 
Middle Tennessee Synod, while in session at Murfreesboro soon 
after his death, held a memorial service at his grave. Hill's life 
was the text for an address on consecration in the ministry by 
Dr. A. J. Baird. The Rev. M. H. Bone, the life-long associate of 
Hill, said in the obituary notice which he published: U I never 

1 Facts furnished by Mr. Hill's daughter. 









304 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period in. 

knew Hill to utter a sentence which I wished unsaid, or to do a 
deed which I wished undone." 

In the autobiography of the Rev. Isaac Shook is recorded a 
notice of the "stars falling" in 1833, which is worth quoting. 
Shook was holding meetings in Huntsville, Alabama, and there 
was considerable interest in the services. One morning at early 
dawn he was awakened by sounds of shouting and prayer over all 
the town. He rose and dressed himself, and on going out discov- 
ered the whole horizon ablaze with what seemed to be stars falling. 
Advent teachers had been through the country proclaiming the 
speedy end of the world, and this looked very much like the 
accomplishment of their proclamation. All over town negroes 
and white people, too, were either praying or shouting. It was 
five o'clock in the morning. Presently the church bell began to 
ring, and soon the house was filled with people. When Shook 
entered he found nearly a hundred unconverted men and women 
on their knees, pouring out earnest prayers to God for pardon 
and salvation. It is a curious fact that there were no conversions 
among all that number of frightened mourners. The meeting, 
however, continued many days with good results, not from the 
fright, but from the blessed gospel of the Son of God. 

The 28th of October, 1834, a meeting of the Cumberland Pres- 
byterians of Washington County, Arkansas, was held in the Cane 
Hill meeting-house for the purpose of taking the necessary steps to 
establish a school. This was two years before Arkansas became a 
State of the Union, and six years before Cumberland University at 
Lebanon, Tennessee, was born. The Rev. Samuel King, then 
traveling as evangelist at large, was called to the chair, and pre- 
sided over the meeting. A board of trust was chosen, and the 
Rev. B. H. Pierson, D.D., was elected president, and Ezra Wilson, 
clerk. This school was opened April, 1835, and was probably kept 
up in some form until seventeen years afterward, when Cane Hill 
College was chartered. Cane Hill was only about ten miles from 
the Indian country. The tracks of the red man were scarcely gone 
from the spot. The three men who organized the first presbytery 
of the Cumberland Presbyterian church were all living, and one 
of them presided over this meeting. This school in the wilder- 



Chapter XXIX.] MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 305 

ness, some say, was the first institution of learning ever established 
on Arkansas soil. Its prime object was to educate young men pre- 
paring for the work of the ministry. 

Dr. Pierson, both the Buchanans, and the Pylants were all 
active movers in inaugurating this pioneer educational enterprise. 
Of John Buchanan's education it has been said: "He was like a 
grindstone; if not very sharp himself, he was specially useful in 
sharpening others." The fruit of his work in aiding young 
preachers to secure an education will endure forever. John Buch- 
anan's name everywhere in Arkansas calls forth exclamations of 
praise and affection. He spent many years as Bible agent. The 
salary offered him was more than he was willing to accept. He 
had it reduced two hundred dollars per annum, and out of the 
remainder he regularly gave a tenth to the Lord's cause. He 
devoted all his days to the Lord's work. Once he stopped at a 
blacksmith shop and had his horse shod. When he asked, "What 
is the bill ? ' ' the answer was, ' ' Pray for me. " ( c Uncle John ' ' re- 
plied: "I am in the habit of paying as I go, so we will kneel down 
here now and have the prayer. ' ' There in the way-side shop the 
two men knelt, and a soul-stirring prayer went up to God for the 
blacksmith. Buchanan rode the circuit ten years without pay. 
He worked as colporteur one year for one hundred dollars and his 
traveling expenses. He was Bible agent five years on a salary of 
five hundred dollars per annum. He collected money for the soci- 
ety equal to six times his salary. 

In 1834 President T. C. Anderson and the Rev. J. M. McMur- 
ray were traveling in Missouri. They put up at a private house 
on the way-side — strangers in a strange land. At table the land- 
lady kept gazing at Anderson. After a while she heard Mr. 
McMurray call his name. Immediately she asked, ' ' Are you any 
kin to the Rev. Alexander Anderson ? ' ' When she was told that her 
guest was his son, she sprang to her feet, seized Mr. Anderson's 
hand, and related the touching story of her conversion under the 
ministry of his father. The travelers yielded to a pressing in- 
vitation to remain and preach in the neighborhood. President 
Anderson says, they had great difficulty in getting away from 
this dear lady. She clung to the son of her spiritual father 
20 



3° 6 



Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period in. 



with a touching tenderness, and begged him to remain in that 
field and be their preacher. 

Some of the people's favorites in the political horizon of Mis- 
souri, in 183 1, had been fighting duels. Resolutions were brought 
before the Missouri Synod, not only condemning duelling, but 
earnestly advising all members of the church to vote for no man 
who ever gave or accepted a challenge. This was bringing 
matters to close quarters. Andrew Jackson and Thomas H. 
Benton would be proscribed by that action. Fiery Democrats 
in the synod declared that these resolutions were introduced for 
political purposes. The debate was very warm, but the reso- 
lutions passed. The minority appealed to the General Assembly, 
but their appeal was not sustained. A hard case. Loyalty to 
party or loyalty to the church courts was the question to be 
decided. Perhaps General Jackson did not lose many votes by 
the decision. 

When Jackson was elected President of the United States, one 
of his old soldiers, the Rev. J. M. Berry, then of Illinois, was heard 
to say, "The 8th day of January made Andrew Jackson President 
and me a preacher." He said he had long felt it to be his 
duty to preach the gospel, but had rebelled. During the fiercest 
portion of the battle, on the day of Jackson's great victory, 
Mr. Berry found himself in a very exposed position. The 
prospects were very poor for escaping all the deadly missiles. 
In view of almost certain death, his rebellion against the duty 
of preaching came up before him as a very solemn matter. It 
seemed a fearful thing to go into the presence of the Judge from 
a life of disobedience ! With these thoughts he there vowed 
to God that if he should be spared he would rebel no longer. 
He kept his vow, and was an ordained preacher when Jackson 
was elected President. He then made the remark here quoted, 
adding, "1 would not swap places with him to-day." 

In that beautiful valley which lies south of the great bend 
in Tennessee River, there lived, far back in the days of slavery, 
a" weal thy doctor. He and his wife were both infidels; and what was 
worse, they had propagated their views far and near, especially among 
the young people. In their large parlor had -been held many a 



Chapter XXIX.] MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 307 

dancing party, where ridiculing the Bible and Christianity was 
one of the chief sources of amusement. By and by the doctor was 
taken very ill, and saw that his illness was unto death. Summon- 
ing a servant he sent him in haste after the Rev. W. D. Chadick, 
of the Cumberland Presbyterian church. When Chadick arrived 
the wife of the sick man met, him at the gate and said to him, 
" Mr. Chadick, if I had known in time I would have prevented 
the messenger from going and so saved you a useless ride. I 
am not going to allow you to see my husband. ' ' The preacher 
mounted his horse, and returned to his home. The sick doctor, 
finding himself thwarted in his efforts to secure Chadick, de- 
termined on another scheme. He owned a negro, who was a 
preacher. This old man was called ' ' Uncle Dick. ' ' The doctor 
sent for Dick, and told him that he wanted to be taught the 
way of salvation. Dick replied "O Lord a mercy, massa, I can't 
help you. If de Lord hisself don't help you, you 're gone." The 
doctor then asked Dick to kneel and pray for him. With fast 
streaming eyes the old negro knelt and poured out a most 
earnest prayer for divine help. The prayer continued long, and 
contained in it the simple lesson of trust in the Redeemer alone 
for salvation. The doctor grasped the blessed truth, and when 
Dick rose to his feet, the sick man was clinging to Christ, 
the one hope for lost souls. He died and was buried, and after 
the funeral the infidel widow returned to her home. Alone 
and desolate she walked through her large rooms and elegant 
parlors, absorbed in earnest thought. She was an educated woman, 
and in her sorrow she felt the truth of what Christians had 
always told her about the emptiness of worldly pleasure. If 
they were right about that might they not be right about a 
future state ? She could not believe that her husband was only 
dust and ashes. Then she sent for old Uncle Dick, and after 
hours of earnest prayer she became a rejoicing convert. She 
joined the Cumberland Presbyterians. As she had been a prop- 
agandist of unbelief, she now resolved to devote her life to the 
work of leading souls to Christ.' Accompanied by Uncle Dick, 
who drove her carriage, and assisted by his prayers, she often 
went from house to house laboring for souls. The good fruits 



3 o8 



Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period in. 



of her Christian influence and efforts are still found in that 
valley. Old Uncle Dick went to his reward long ago, but she, 
though now quite old, still gives her strength to the service of 
her King. 

In 1825 the Rev. R. D. King was "riding the circuit" in 
Tennessee, when a man described to him a wonderful prayer 
which he had overheard a woman offer up to God. The woman 
was living in a new settlement where infidelity abounded, and 
her husband and sons were coming under its influence. The 
neighborhood had no regular preaching of any sort, and this 
Christian woman had tried in vain to secure some one to preach 
the gospel to her family. In her prayer, which was by accident 
overheard, she opened lip her heart's deep troubles to the Lord, 
laying before him the whole dreadful condition of the com- 
munity in which she lived. She told the I^ord how infidelity 
was making its way into her own family, and, finally, in all 
her helplessness, she laid the case down at the Master's feet. 
On further inquiry, King learned that this woman lived only 
eighteen miles from his usual route, and he determined to send 
an appointment for preaching at her house. This he did; but 
he happened, in the meantime, to meet with a Methodist min- 
ister who warned him not to visit that neighborhood because 
personal violence had been threatened against any preacher who 
might venture to preach there. When the day arrived the people 
at whose house King had spent the night, tried hard to dissuade 
him from going. King yielded, put his horse back in the 
stable, and sat down to try to study. But he could not study. 
He had an appointment to preach and was playing coward. 
Never had that been the case before. Again he brought out 
his horse, and this time no persuasion could stop him. When 
he reached the place, though it was not Sabbath, the whole yard 
was thronged with people. Three rooms were packed full. King 
preached ; and began singing, "Hark, my soul, it is the Lord." 
As yet there was no violence, no interruption; but some frowns 
and scowling faces were seen, and King was not yet free from 
apprehension. When he was singing the second verse, a beauti- 
ful woman cried out, " Glory to God." " That," says King, " was 



Chapter XXIX.] MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 309 

orie of the sweetest interruptions ever a preacher suffered. ' ' Rising 
to her feet, this woman made her way toward a man who had 
been looking defiance all through the sermon. When the happy 
woman drew near him, stretching out both her arms toward 
him she exclaimed, in thrilling accents, "O father." The 
man fell prostrate. He was the husband of the woman who 
prayed that wonderful prayer, and he proved to be the key-stone 
of the arch, and all the arch came tumbling down. This was 
one of the day's of the Son of man. They had services again 
that night. Next day when King started on his way sixteen 
of the young people were at the gate, mounted and ready to go 
with him to his next place of preaching ; and every one of these 
sixteen professed conversion that day. The woman who had 
prayed the wonderful prayer also went along with King to that 
next day's meeting. 

The results were so different from all his apprehensions that 
Mr. King was puzzled to understand the case. Inquiring into 
the matter, he learned that after the woman had prayed so ear- 
nestly she began the regular practice of gathering all her children 
into her private room, every Sabbath, and there reading a por- 
tion of Scripture and trying to expound it, after which she knelt 
with them in prayer. A change came over these children, especially 
in their Sabbath habits. Their comrades, who visited the family, 
noticed the change, and asked the cause of it. Learning about 
the Sabbath lessons in that private room, they obtained per- 
mission to attend. The little private room was crowded at 
every recitation, and there, under the teaching and prayers of 
that humble woman, God was sapping the foundations of infidelity, 
and preparing the way for his gospel. When King next passed 
that way on his circuit, he again preached at this good woman's 
house, and then organized the Lasting Hope congregation, Maury 
County, Tennessee. The name was appropriate to the long cling- 
ing, and finally gratified, hope of that mother. At that second 
service this mother saw her husband and children become mem- 
bers of the church. This account is taken from King's manu- 
script autobiography. 






FOURTH PERIOD. 



CHAPTER XXX 



A GENERAL SURVEY. 

Already, laboring with a mighty fate, 

She shakes the rubbish from her mounting brow, 

And seems to have renewed her charter's date, 
Which Heaven will to the death of Time allow. 

— Dry den. % 

AT the beginning of this period of eighteen years there were 
twelve Cumberland Presbyterian synods and fifty-three 
presbyteries ; at its close there were twenty-seven synods and 
ninty-seven presbyteries. The average increase was not quite 
one synod each year ; and considerably over two presbyteries a 
year, not quite three. When this period began the church had 
just emerged from great internal trials ; at its close the whole 
country was just plunging into the fiery external ordeal which 
the civil war was bringing on. It was well that the church 
had this breathing spell of eighteen years between these two 
ordeals. 

True, the bitter strifes of the third period projected their 
waning shadows into this fourth period. The Rev. James Smith 
remained a member of the church several years after his resig- 
nation of the office of stated clerk, and after the beginning of 
this period. He refused to hand over the Minutes of the General 
Assembly to his successor, but, after many calls and some threats 
of legal process, the Assembly finally got possession of its own 
records. The Minutes of three meetings of the General Synod, 
182 1, 1823, x an d 1826, however were lacking, also the Minutes 

X I have found the Records for 1823, since I began to write this History. 
(3 IQ ) 



Chapter XXX.] GENERAL SURVEY. 31I 

of the General Assembly for 1838. The Assembly called on all 
the ministers of the church to help find the lost records. The 
Minutes for 1838 were partially recovered through the newspaper 
reports. The others remain lost. 

The opening sermon of the General Assembly of 1843 was 
preached by Milton Bird. The text was Acts vi. 4. Two great 
evils had been crushing the very life out of the church: A secu- 
larized ministry and a secularized General Assembly — that is, 
an Assembly embarrassed by financial enterprises, all of which had 
proved disastrous. Various writers had been pointing out the 
evils arising from this secularization of preachers and church 
courts ; but the most forcible and effective of all these protests 
was this opening sermon by Milton Bird. He argued first 
against a secularized clergy. He showed what was the voice of 
both history and Scripture on the subject, and dwelt with power 
on the high and holy nature of the minister's calling. He 
showed next that the mission of the church courts was like the 
mission of the ministry, exclusively spiritual ; that both the Old 
and New Testament Scriptures laid down rigid laws excluding 
these courts from the management of secular affairs. Other and 
wholly separate organizations were required by Scripture for the 
transaction of financial business. Boards of experts could manage 
these things far better than any General Assembly, while the spirit- 
ual oversight of the churches far exceeded in importance all secular 
business, and was work enough to fill the hands of any Assembly. 
From that day onward Milton Bird's high rank among the min- 
isters of the church was recognized. The Assembly passed resolu- 
tions declaring itself forever divorced from all management of 
financial affairs, whether connected with newspapers, colleges, the 
publication of books, or aught else. 

Inasmuch as there were still found in the Assembly of 1843 
men who kept alive the strife about the colleges and the papers, 
those who were for peace determined to have 110 Assembly in 1844. 
Their views prevailed, and the Assembly adjourned, requiring the 
next Assembly to meet in 1845, at Lebanon, Tennessee. 

The General Assembly of 1845 was a most interesting convoca- 
tion. The great speech of that occasion was made outside of 




3i2 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iv. 

Assembly hours by the Rev. A. M. Bryan, D.D., of Pittsburg, 
Pennsylvania. His theme was the great fire which had lately 
swept through Pittsburg. At the close of that speech Judge R. 
L. Caruthers gave Dr. Bryan a thousand dollars for the sufferers. 
Dr. Beard's address on education was also deeply impressive. 

The missionary work of the church had almost entirely passed 
into the hands of presbyterial and synodical boards of missions. 
The Ladies' General Board at Russellville, Kentucky, had ceased to 
exist, and the church at that place had declined much in numbers 
and influence. The Assembly of 1845 proceeded to organize a 
Board of Domestic and Foreign Missions, and located it at Leb- 
anon, Tennessee. For a few years it carried on its foreign work as 
an auxiliary to the American Board. The Rev. Thomas Calhoun 
was its first president. After his death the Rev. F. R. Cossitt was 
president. 

A curious complication arose in connection with the church's 
mission work. The presbyterial and synodical boards had ex- 
tended their operations far beyond their own boundaries. Some 
of them were slow to yield their independent work and become 
auxiliary to the general board. The men in charge of the general 
board had a hard struggle to get all this machinery adjusted; but 
through a wise and prudent administration of the board's affairs, 
harmony was secured. 

The board at first had no paid officers. The whole receipts 
would not have paid one salary. When at last, in 1851, the Rev. 
Isaac Shook was employed as secretary, the receipts were only a 
little more than the salary. In 1853, after this secretary had held 
his office for two years, the entire receipts were $2,953. I* was a 
curious view of this responsible work which allowed the only paid 
officer of the board to live on his farm fifty miles away from Leb- 
anon. This state of things, however, was not permitted to con- 
tinue long. Mr. Shook moved to Lebanon in 1852, and put forth 
all his strength in the work. In 1853, by the direction of the 
board, and with the approval of the General Assembly, he began 
the publication of a monthly missionary magazine. Shook was a 
holy, earnest man. His heart was in his work. He stirred up 
new interest for the Indians, and made some progress in enlisting 



Chapter XXX.] GENERAL SURVEY. 313 

the whole church in the great work of missions. He was all his 
life an invalid. 

After Mr. Shook's resignation, in 1854, there was an interval 
without a secretary. Then the Rev. T. P. Calhoun was elected. 
He was a young man just out of college, a son of Thomas Cal- 
houn so often mentioned in the preceding chapters of this history, 
and a son-in-law of the Rev. David Lowry. In the collection of 
missionary funds he relied largely on traveling agents, but the 
results of this whole system were unsatisfactory. In 1857 Mr. Cal- 
houn resigned, and there was considerable difficulty in securing 
another secretary. 

The Rev. T. C. Blake was secured for this position in Decem- 
ber, 1857, and to him the church is indebted for the first success- 
ful attempt to dispense with traveling agents in the work of collect- 
ing money for missions. When he announced that the preachers 
throughout the church would be solely relied on to do the work 
hitherto done by agents, many were the prophesies of disaster. But 
the secretary adhered strictly to his programme. In two years, 
without paid agents, the receipts of the board were increased from 
five thousand dollars to fourteen thousand dollars. Notes on hand 
were regularly reported by Mr. Blake, but these were notes taken 
under former secretaries. The cash receipts were fourteen thou- 
sand dollars. The receipts by States for i860 were, in round num- 
bers, as follows: Tennessee, $5,235; Alabama, $2,251; Arkansas, 
$1,595; Mississippi, $1,460; Kentucky, $1,135; Indiana, $925; Mis- 
souri, $562; Texas, $302; Kansas, $181; Louisiana, $106; Illinois, 
$90; Iowa, $75; Pennsylvania, $53; Ohio, $48. There were small 
contributions from several other States. 

For several years each synod made its own arrangements about 
having the Confession of Faith and Catechism published. The 
propriety of having some general and central committee of publi- 
cation had often been discussed, and at the Assembly of 1845 sllcn 
a committee was appointed. The scheme contemplated proved 
impracticable. The members of the committee lived in different 
States at great distances from each other. A joint stock company 
was to be formed, and all the presbyteries were asked to become 
stockholders in the enterprise. Thus the mania for joint stock 



314 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iv. 

companies which prevailed during the preceding period had not 
wholly disappeared. Speculation in Western lands, in gold mines, 
in insurance companies, in various other schemes, have all been 
tried by our boards, and have all left the marks of God's displeas- 
ure upon the past records of the church. Giving money for God's 
cause is an act of worship and a means of grace, and all schemes to 
supplant God's established method are theoretically false and prac- 
tically disastrous. Under a new disguise the Assembly of 1845 
fettered itself again with the halter from which the Assembly of 
1843 had freed itself. Financial speculation was to be embarked 
in, not this time by the Assembly itself, but by the presbyteries. 
The Committee on Publication at the next two meetings of the 
Assembly reported nothing accomplished. 

In 1847 the programme was changed. The General Assembly 
appointed a publishing committee whose members lived near 
Louisville, Kentucky. This committee was instructed to secure a 
charter, and to appoint financial agents to solicit donations, to 
keep clear of debt, and to make no sales on a credit. Like little 
boats, they were to keep near shore. The Rev. Milton Bird was 
at the head of this enterprise. It was on a sound basis, though its 
lack of capital was a great embarrassment. For several years it 
issued Confessions of Faith and hymn books, and seemed to be 
doing well. This board sent out traveling agents, and thus 
secured means to begin its business. Its books were published 
under contract, by the house of Morton & Griswold, which was 
then the best publishing house south of the Ohio River. 

The administration of the board's financial affairs frequently 
changed hands, and there grew up at last general dissatisfaction 
with the management. In 1857 the General Assembly declared 
the report of the board both vague and unsatisfactory, and called 
for a final settlement of its affairs. The next year (1858) the board 
made no report, but A. F. Cox, financial agent, attended the Assem- 
bly, and answered the inquiries made by the committee appointed 
to investigate the case. The result of this investigation was that 
the Assembly appointed a new committee of publication, to be 
located at Nashville, Tennessee, and ordered the Louisville board 
to transfer all its assets to this Nashville committee. The Rev. W. 



Chapter XXX.] GENERAI, SURVEY. 315 

M. Reed was chairman of this committee. The Rev. W. S. Lang- 
don was the first financial agent, and he began his services soon 
after the committee was organized, but resigned after a few 
months. 

The Nashville committee obtained from the Louisville board a 
lot of badly damaged books, the manuscript for a hymn book, a 
number of old notes, and a few stereotype plates. Along with 
these it received another inheritance, the debts of the Louisville 
board. The books and old notes, however, paid off these debts, 
and furnished besides about nine hundred dollars capital. The 
committee then secured a regular charter. After the confusion 
attending the removal of the effects of the board from Louisville, 
the stereotype plates of "Infant Philosophy," "Ewing's Lectures," 
"Donnell's Thoughts," and "Porter's Foreknowledge and De- 
crees," were found to be missing. The Louisville board in 1853 
had reported all these plates except the last as assets, mentioning 
the recent purchase of the copyright of "Infant Philosophy." 
When the plates were missed, a man was sent from Nashville to 
search for them. He succeeded in tracing them from Louisville to 
Philadelphia, but failed to find them. They will probably never be 
recovered. 

In the second year after the removal to Nashville this board 
secured the Rev. Isaac Shook as its general financial agent. The 
last year of this period it reported books and plates on hand 
amounting in value to thirty-seven hundred dollars. Ten thou- 
sand copies of the Hymn Book had been sold. The board owed 
one debt of one hundred and sixty dollars. The report to the 
General Assembly declared that no church could carry on its pub- 
lication work on any other plan than strict conformity to sound 
business principles. 

Cumberland Presbyterians have a curious hymn book history. 
Several small collections of camp-meeting hymns were published 
by individuals, but the church for a long time had no recognized 
book of its own. On the pulpits could be found the hymn books 
of Methodists, Baptists, and other churches. At a Sunday service 
in a church where a Methodist book was used a minister who had 
but lately preached a series of sermons on the final perseverance of 










316 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iv. . 

the saints hurriedly selected a hymn. Beginning without noticing 
the import of the words, he read: 

" With shame of soul I do confess, 
A real saint may fall from grace." 

In 1845 a manuscript hymn book was adopted by the General 
Assembly, and afterward published by the Board of Publication. 
In 1858 this book was revised by a committee appointed by the 
Assembly, and then stereotyped under direction of the board at 
Nashville. This was that board's first work of this kind. 

The Assembly of 1855 organized the Board of Education at 
Nashville, Tennessee. The Rev. M. H. Bone was its president, 
and the Rev. J. C. Provine, D.D., secretary and treasurer. This 
board's receipts averaged about one thousand dollars a year in cash, 
while the notes it annually took ranged from six hundred to five 
thousand dollars. It was interrupted by the war, but is still at 
work. The aid it has given annually to young men preparing for 
the ministry does not, however, equal the tenth part of what is 
done by the church, because many individuals and even some soci- 
eties prefer to report only to the Lord what they give for this pur- 
pose. It is very important that the receipts of this board should 
be greatly increased. 

The Board of Church Erection, organized by the Assembly of 
1856, was located at St. Louis, Missouri, with the Rev. J. B. Logan 
at its head. This board was instructed to secure donations, and to 
loan, not give, the money to weak churches for building purposes. 
At no time did its receipts amount to three hundred dollars per 
annum. One year it received only seven dollars; another year it 
reported no receipts at all. Let it not be supposed, however, that 
our people turned a deaf ear to all calls for help in building 
churches. At Philadelphia, St. Louis, and Cincinnati, at Austin, 
Texas, Burlington, Iowa, and Murfreesboro and Jackson, Tennes- 
see, and at other places, comfortable houses were erected with 
money given by distant congregations. It is not known why these 
handsome donations to church erection were not given through the 
board or reported to it. 

From an early day the highest judicature of the Cumberland 
Presbyterian church kept renewing its declarations of readiness for 



Chapter XXX.] GENERAL SURVEY. 317 

friendly correspondence with other evangelical churches. The 
General Assembly appointed a standing Committee on Fraternal 
Correspondence. In 1845 several articles from members of the 
New School Presbyterian church appeared in the papers, advocat- 
ing closer union with Cumberland Presbyterians. One New School 
synod passed some resolutions calling for such union. The New 
School General Assembly of 1846 passed the following paper: 

Whereas, there is a spirit abroad that seeks to unite in closer 
bonds the different divisions of the Christian church; and whereas, 
there prevails extensively in some parts of our country an impression 
that a union between the Presbyterian church and the Cumberland 
Presbyterian church would be very desirable; and whereas, the General 
Assembly of that body did, at its session in May last, at Lebanon, Ten- 
nessee, appoint a committee of correspondence on the subject of union; 
therefore, 

Resolved, That this Assembly now appoint a committee to corre- 
spond with the aforesaid committee on the subject, to obtain all neces- 
sary information, and to present it to this Assembly at its next stated 
meeting. 

Although this action was not known to the Cumberland Pres- 
byterian Assembly of 1846, yet there had been so much written by 
members of the New School church about union with our people, 
and so many friendly signals had been held out by synods and 
presbyteries, that this Assembly felt itself authorized to take some 
steps toward responding to these friendly expressions. It there- 
fore appointed Dr. Richard Beard a corresponding delegate to the 
next New School Assembly. In 1847 our Assembly met at Leb- 
anon, Ohio, while theirs met in Cincinnati. Their committee 
came to Lebanon, and there held a conference with our standing 
committee while the two Assemblies were in session. These two 
committees entered into an agreement not only for correspondence, 
but much more. The items of their agreement were in these 
words: 

Resolved, Provided both Assemblies shall agree thereto, that the fol- 
lowing plan of correspondence be adopted, viz.: The General Assem- 
bly of each of these churches shall receive and appoint two delegates 
to each stated meeting of the General Assembly of the other church, 
who shall possess all the powers and privileges of other members of 









318 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iv. 

such Assemblies, with the exception of the right of voting. 2. It is 
hereby recommended that the synods and presbyteries of these churches 
which are contiguous, or which occupy the same territory, appoint and 
receive delegates to one another in like manner, and that they endeavor 
to cultivate a spirit of friendly correspondence and extended toleration, 
mutually to increase in courteous and fraternal feelings toward each 
other. 3. Vacant churches belonging to each denomination may at 
their own discretion, and under regulations to be provided by the pres- 
byteries to which they belong, employ the ministers connected with the 
other body as temporary supplies for their pulpits, without a change in 
the ecclesiastical relations of such ministers or churches. 

The Rev. Milton Bird, chairman of onr standing committee, 
submitted this report to our Assembly immediately. The first item 
was unanimously agreed to. The second and third items were 
indefinitely postponed. The New School committee hastened to 
Cincinnati and submitted their report. There was considerable 
debate. The large slave-holding element in the Cumberland Pres- 
byterian church constituted the only objection. One prominent 
doctor said in his speech x that the Presbyterian church owed the 
Cumberland Presbyterians an acknowledgement for the wrong 
which drove them into a separate organization. The chairman of 
the committee said that he had found no difference between the 
two churches in doctrine. Finally the whole matter was deferred 
till the next General Assembly. 

Dr. Beard, as corresponding delegate to the Cincinnati Assem- 
bly, found himself in an awkward attitude. He was present and 
heard this discussion on the question of receiving corresponding 
delegates from the Cumberland Presbyterians. He declined to 
press his case on the attention of the Assembly, but after spending 
one day as a private spectator only, he returned to his home. He 
felt mortified and humiliated, and said he would never again allow 
himself to be placed in so embarrassing an attitude. 

The New. School Assembly of 1848, to which this report of the 
Committee on Fraternal Intercourse was referred, adopted the first 
item of this report, and appointed a delegate to the next Cumber- 
land Presbyterian Assembly. Action on the second and third 
items was forestalled by what our Assembly had done the year 

J The Texas Presbyterian, July 17, 1847, quotes these speeches at some length. 



Chapter XXX.] GENERAL SURVEY. 319 

before. In spite of ecclesiastical marriages, fraternal correspond- 
ence has been kept np in some form between the two chnrches 
ever since. In 1850 the Rev. Edward McMillan, D.D., delegate 
from the New School church, closed his address to the Cumberland 
Presbyterian Assembly with these words: 

The literary institutions of your church, with the divine blessing, 
will prove a most effective instrumentality for promoting that enlarge- 
ment of mind and vigor of thought which, when united with evangel- 
ical piety, form such important qualifications for doing good on a large 
scale. We congratulate you most heartily in your success in securing 
the endowment of your university, and the encouraging prospects be- 
fore you of establishing schools for your sons of the prophets. May 
Christ conduct your efforts in this undertaking to a prosperous termina- 
tion. I would not fail to assure you that we rejoice much in the decid- 
edly evangelical character of your religious periodicals. 

Finally, brethren, I testify that I have with much happiness wit- 
nessed the excellent spirit with which you have conducted the business 
of your present sessions, and the tender regard continually shown by 
all your speakers for the feelings of their brethren. I shall long cherish 
the fondest recollections of this beginning of fraternal correspondence 
between these kindred branches of the church of Christ. May it be 
long continued, and, as it continues, may our mutual love, attachment, 
and co-operation in every good work be increased till the Master comes 
and finds us so doing. 

It was not till i860 that the Old School Assembly took steps 
toward an exchange of corresponding delegates with our Assembly. 
While Cumberland Presbyterians naturally waited for Presbyterians 
to move first in this matter, yet they hailed this movement with 
great joy. 

At different times official efforts have been made to secure a 
complete history of the Cumberland Presbyterian church. The 
Assembly of 1847 appointed Dr. Cossitt to write such a history. 
This, like other similar appointments, came to nothing. 

Two general fast-days were appointed in this period: one to 
pray for peace with England, in 1846, the Oregon difficulties being 
then portentous of war; and the other, in 1853, to P ra Y tnat more 
preachers might be called and sent into the ministry. All through 
this period the Assembly kept up its efforts to secure full statistics, 
and a complete ministerial directory, but at no time were there full 



320 



Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iv. 






reports from more than half the presbyteries. Not until after the 
war did all opposition to counting cease to show itself. 

In 1855, while the General Assembly was in session at Lebanon, 
Tennessee, it received a letter from the Rev. Robert Donnell, writ- 
ten from his death-bed. It was a tender, fatherly letter, full of love 
and full of hope for the future of his church. He urged the impor- 
tance of securing a full history of our church. He remonstrated 
against revising the Confession of Faith. He said of the Confes- 
sion: "Though it is not perfect in phraseology, yet it has system 
and perfection enough to make us all think alike. ' ' The General 
Assembly appointed a committee to respond to this letter, and thus 
closed forever the church's earthly intercourse with one of the 
noblest of all its servants. 

Memorials proposing to change the name of our church to 
American Presbyterian were voted down in 1850. Discussions 
about baptism were brought before the Assembly of 1857, and the 
traditional position of the church was steadfastly maintained. 

In i860 there were fifteen chartered Cumberland Presbyterian 
colleges, and thirteen academies and seminaries. Many other mat- 
ters of vital importance which occupied the attention of the vari- 
ous Assemblies, having special chapters devoted to them, need not 
be now discussed. In 1855 the day of meeting for the General 
Assembly was changed to the third Thursday of May instead of the 
third Tuesday. In 1850 Milton Bird was elected stated clerk, C. G. 
McPherson having resigned. The synods that were formed in this 
period, or whose organization was ordered by the General Assem- 
bly, were: East Tennessee, 1843; Texas (recognized as existing), 
McAdow, Kentucky, Hernando, 1845; Cumberland (dissolved in 
1852), 1848; Brazos, 1849; Ozark, Ouchita (incorrectly spelled 
Washita), 1852; Ohio, 1853; Colorado, 1854; Iowa (failed to organ- 
ize), 1855; Mississippi, 2d (name changed to Iowa afterward), 1856; 
White River, Central Illinois, 1859; Sacramento, i860. The pres- 
byteries named in the following list are mentioned for the first time 
in the Minutes of the Assembly at the dates here indicated: 1 Mad- 
ison, Trinity, Yazoo, 1846; Allegheny, Springfield (Missouri), 1847; 

1 Several of these presbyteries were doubtless organized at earlier dates than 
those here assigned. 



Chapter XXX.] 



General Survey. 



321 



Hodge, 1 Charlotte, Independence, 1848; Frazier, Ouchita, Marshall, 
1849; Chillicothe, Bwing (Missouri), Harris, 1850; Ewing 2 (Arkan- 
sas), Union (Mississippi), Bartholomew, Brazos, Foster, and Cali- 
fornia, 1852; Oregon, Muskingum, 1853; Guadalupe, Little River, 
1854; Tehuacana, Pacific, McMinnville, Waxahachie, West Iowa, 
1855; Searcy, Kansas, White Rock, Greenville, 1856; Monroe, 1857; 
Frazier (reported dissolved), 1858; Mount Olive, Red Oak, Georgia, 
Davis, West Prairie, Decatur, Bacon, White Oak, Colesburg, Cen- 
tral Iowa, 1859; Kirksville, Sacramento, i860. 



1 Name changed to Springfield (1849). 

a The other Ewing Presbytery (McAdow Synod) was dissolved in 1852. 
21 



322 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iv. 



CHAPTER XXXI 



MISSIONS— 1843 TO i860. 

But through the clouds and through the flame 

And flowing floods as on I went, 
A voice of hope and cheering came, 

Fear not to go where God hath sent. 

— Uphatn. 

IN all the territories which were opened to settlement during 
this period, as well as in all the new States mentioned in 
former chapters, Cumberland Presbyterian missions were planted, 
some under the general board, but a larger number under the care 
of presbyteries and synods. Church judicatures had long arms 
when it came to missionary work. A presbytery in Tennessee had 
a missionary in Texas. Most of this work by synods and presby- 
teries will have to be passed over in silence. However precious it 
may have been, it is only traceable now in the fruit which still 
abides. The special chapters devoted to the new States will bring 
to our notice some of these fruits, as well as some account of the 
general* board's work in those States. 

One feature of the home missionary work of this period was 
city missions. There were a great many of these, some under the 
general board and some under local boards. In Tennessee, missions 
were established at Chattanooga, Murfreesboro, Clarksville, and 
Jackson. These have all become self-sustaining churches, with 
good buildings finished and paid for. 

In Kentucky the city missions of the period were Louisville 
and Paducah. At Louisville a good house was built and paid for, 
and a little congregation organized; but the house was lost during 
the war by processes which it is not now worth while to discuss. 
This mission has been revived, and now has a new house almost 
completed. Paducah became for a time self-sustaining. 

In Missouri the city missions were at St. Joseph and St. Louis. 



Chapter XXXL] MISSIONS. 323 

There were two at the latter city, one for the Germans and one 
for the Americans. These missions, especially the one for Amer- 
icans, passed through many struggles and reverses, and will claim 
attention in another chapter of this history. 

In Indiana our only city mission was at Bvansville. It grew 
steadily, and is now one of the strongest congregations in the 
church. 

In Illinois our people had missions at Peoria and Alton. At 
Peoria a church was built, but the mission failed to be sustained, 
and Cumberland Presbyterians have no congregation there. At 
Alton, after a long struggle, a self-sustaining church was estab- 
lished. 

In Cincinnati, Ohio, our people attempted a mission, and suc- 
ceeded in building a house. The Rev. F. G. Black, the mission- 
ary, spent one thousand dollars of his own money while struggling 
to establish this enterprise, but it was at last abandoned. 

In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, there was a Cumberland Presby- 
terian mission. A good house was built and paid for. Over a 
hundred members were gathered into the congregation, but on 
account of its isolated condition the little church was peculiarly 
tried every year. As our people had no churches on that side of 
the Alleghenies, this congregation had no tributaries. Every 
member that moved out of its bounds to some distant part of the 
city was lost, and those who rented houses near the church could 
always find in the neighborhood a church of the same denomina- 
tion to which they had before belonged. There was thus a con- 
stant drain on the membership. This forlorn outpost was finally 
abandoned. 

In Texas there were missions at Austin, Jefferson, and San An- 
tonio. The first two were in due time self-sustaining; the last, 
after being long abandoned, has in recent years been revived. 

During this period there were successful missions at Little 
Rock, Arkansas; Corinth, Mississippi; Waukon, Iowa; and Shelby- 
ville, Tennessee. All these are now self-sustaining churches. To 
the mission at Burlington, Iowa, the church paid more money than 
to any other city mission except St. Louis. In spite of this large 
outlav the work there was an entire failure. 



324 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iv. 

There were missions in various smaller towns, which can not 
be enumerated here. City missions were a prominent feature of the 
work of the church in this period. During former periods towns 
and cities had generally, from the necessities of the case, been 
shunned. In spite of losses and failures the city mission work 
during this period yielded permanent results of good, far outvaluing 
the labor or the cost. 

In 1834, x under what he considered divine leadings, the Rev. 
David Ivowry undertook a mission to the Winnebago Indians. He 
had no church appointment, but he had pledges from the Indian 
agent that the usual aid from the United States government would 
be given him if he established a school among the Winnebagoes. 
Mr. I/Owry first made his home at Prairie du Chien. On his arrival 
the Indians were celebrating a funeral with drunken orgies. Naked 
savages were lying prostrate on the ground and some of them howl- 
ing like wolves. Their annuity had just been paid them, and this 
enabled them to buy whisky. The missionary says he felt very 
much like he had undertaken to evangelize a herd of wild animals. 
The agent was absent. The promised school-buildings were not 
ready. It was a dark day. Mr. L,owry had his family with him, 
and they were filled with dismay. 

The inhabitants of the town of Prairie du Chien were mostly 
French Catholics, but Mr. Lowry says they were but little better 
than the Winnebagoes. At first the Indians would not allow their 
children to attend Mr. Lowry's school. His first session was with- 
out a single pupil. But with unshaken courage and unyielding 
devotion the missionary persevered. In 1837, after three years of 
apparently fruitless struggle, the obstacles began to yield. That 
Year the school had forty-two pupils. Mr. Lowry's preaching also 
bore good fruit. Doubtless many converts of this mission greeted 
him when he passed from earth to dwell by the side of the river of 
life. 

In 1844 Mr. Lowry lost his appointment. He and others attrib- 
uted this loss to the intrigues of Catholic priests. In 1846 his 
appointment was restored and he immediately returned to his mis- 



1 The arrangements for the school were made in 1832, and a Cumberland Pres- 
byterian elder, General Street, appointed agent. 



Chapter XXXL] MISSIONS. 3^5 

sion. An official report of the Indian sub-agent, J. E. Fletcher, 
after sketching the condition of the tribe, their crops, etc., speaks 
thus of the school : 

The Winnebago school is in successful operation under the superin- 
tendence of the Rev. David Lowry. I have frequently visited the school 
and inspected the boarding and clothing departments. I find that the 
children in attendance are well supplied with wholesome food, and are 
suitably clothed. Neatness, order, and cheerfulness are apparent 
throughout the establishment. Mr. Lowry's management of the school 
is, I think, judicious. Patience and kindness are substituted for passion 
and severity. The general system of education adopted in the school is 
similar to the system ordinarily adopted in primary schools. The capac- 
ity of the scholars to learn is similar to that evinced by white children 
of the same age. The progress of the scholars attending the school is 
not equal to the progress usually made by white children. This differ- 
ence on the part of the Indian is accounted for by his irregularity of 
attendance and the influences to which he is subject when not at school. 

Believing that a practical knowledge of agriculture, and the for- 
mation of industrious habits is to the Indian youth of at least equal 
importance to the acquirement of literary knowledge, I recommended to 
the principal of the school that the boys of suitable age should be em- 
ployed in manual labor a part of every day. The plan met his approba- 
tion, and was acted upon, and it is understood that manual labor, both in 
the field and in the shop, will be a part of the system of instruction in 
the school. There are at present three female and two male teachers 
employed. If it was considered probable that the Winnebagoes would 
long occupy their present home, I should deem it my duty respectfully 
to suggest to the department the expediency of establishing branches 
of this school or the establishment of additional schools at a point on the 
Iowa River, and also on the Red Cedar. Three bands of the Winne- 
bagoes have concentrated on the east fork of the Red Cedar and built 
the best village in the nation, and have upward of one hundred children 
of a suitable age to attend school. 

Mr. Lowry, in his official report to the United States Indian 
agent, dated Winnebago school, August 15, 1846, says : 

I entered on the duties of superintendent of the Winnebago school 
on the first day of May last. Eighty-five children were found registered 
on the daily list ; but as usual at all Indian schools, the whole number 
were not in constant attendance. Twenty new scholars have been 
added in the course of the summer, making one hundred and five now 
connected with the institution. 



326 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iv. 

This report goes on to state that some of the pupils had acquired 
"a respectable knowledge of figures, geography, etc.," and were 
learning to write. There were a few more girls than boys in 
attendance. The girls were taught to sew, and with the assistance 
of the lady in charge made all the clothes worn at the school, 
while the boys were "called out at regular periods to labor on the 
farm." Mr. I^owry stated that the condition of the Indians was 
greatly improved through the influence of the school. They owned 
more property, their physical sufferings were much diminished, 
there was a growing disposition to cultivate the soil, they employed 
horses to draw plows and wagons. The missionary adds : ( ' They 
would live in houses, but have been discouraged by the govern- 
ment, owing to their unsettled state." He goes on to show that 
the great obstacle to the progress of the tribes was the want of a 
permanent home. This state of uncertainty prevented the erection 
of additional buildings needed by the school. The pupils returning 
to their houseless and homeless people, found their education of but 
little service. Mr. Lowry spoke of "whisky and intercourse with 
the whites " as" the stereotyped curse of the red man, ' ' and insisted 
that a people could not be raised from a savage to a civilized and 
happy state without religion. He suggested ' ' the propriety of send- 
ing off, with the consent of their parents, a few of the most prom- 
ising children of the school, to complete their education in some 
religious community. ' y He also suggested the purchase of a print- 
ing-press for the use of the school. 

In May, 1848, Mr. Iyowry published in the Cumberland Presby- 
terian a brief history of this mission, showing the evils of the 
liquor traffic among the Indians and the wrongs they suffered from 
the vices and greed of the whites. He says : ' ' Sixteen years ago 
a government school was established among these Indians, under 
the care of a Cumberland Presbyterian minister. Buildings were 
erected on the west side of the Mississippi, in the interior of the 
country, teachers were employed, land plowed and fenced for 
them, and other advantages held out to induce them to settle in the 
vicinity. In 1837 they ceded all their country east of the Missis- 
sippi to the government, and in 1840, according to the stipulations 
of the treaty made at that time, new buildings were erected and 



Chapter XXXI.] MISSIONS. 327 

the school and agency removed fifty miles farther into the interior, 
that the Indians might be farther away from whisky and the con- 
taminating vices of the frontier. It was not long, however, before 
the intervening forests and prairies began to be filled with rapidly 
growing settlements of whites. Whisky traders soon came with 
their red-stained barrels to engage in their murderous traffic." 
With whisky came drunkenness among the Indians — quarrels, 
fights and depredations. The people of Iowa soon began to 
clamor for the removal of the Indians from their boundaries. The 
government sent a commissioner, and the Winnebagoes were told 
that "the Great Father, the 'President," was pained to hear of 
their difficulties and depredations and thought his red children too 
near his white children, and wished them to go out farther, where 
game was plenty, and where they would be away from whisky and 
could live in peace. It was several years, however, before these 
negotiations were successful. At last, in 1846, the Indians ceded 
all their lands in Iowa to the government ; but the government 
did not purchase for them the country promised, and they refused 
to move. 

In 1848 the treaty was enforced, the government agreeing to 
obtain other lands for the Winnebagoes. The Indians were not 
satisfied with the treaty, and it took something like military force 
to induce them to accept its conditions. A letter written by Mr. 
Lowry from Fort Snelling, to his son, June 28, 1848, shows how 
reluctantly this treaty was complied with, and what embarrassments 
the missionary suffered on that account. This letter shows that Mr. 
Lowry's family, with other white families living among the Winne- 
bagoes, foreseeing the trouble which was likely to result from an 
attempt to enforce the treaty, removed to Fort Snelling before the 
time appointed for the removal of the Indians. The result proved 
that this precaution was necessary. The Indians refused to move, 
and two hundred and fifty of their warriors armed themselves for 
battle. Sylvanus Lowry was sent for. He went immediately to the 
scene of trouble and threw himself between the Indians and the dra- 
goons. The cry, "shoot him down," was heard, but he continued 
his appeal, and the Indians at last agreed to disperse. Some days 
of disputing followed, and then they took up their line of march. 



328 



Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iv. 



But after they began their journey they held a council and a large 
majority declared against removing. All but about six hundred 
refused to proceed. The great majority did not remove until forced 
to do so. 

Mr. Iyowry and his son often interposed to prevent bloodshed. 
He followed the Indians to their new home in the far north-west. 
Here he again opened his school and had it well under way ; but 
after a few years of successful labor he was again the victim of 
intrigues, and lost his appointment. 

Many of the older members of the church remember with what 
earnest words David Lowry used to flead in the pulpit for the per- 
ishing heathen. The years sweep on, L,owry has gone to his Father' s 
house; a generation of heathen has also gone to eternity since those 
thrilling appeals were made, but still the church doles out its poor 
little pittance of men and money to Foreign Missions. And yet the 
thrilling interest at stake in the work which our King has commis- 
sioned us to do is far greater than all the earthly interests to which 
men are so ready to devote their money and their lives. "Go ye 
into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. " 

Two noble young ladies, members of the Cumberland Presby- 
terian church in Philadelphia, went, in 1853, under the direction 
of the American Board of Missions, to work among the heathen. 
We know in a general way that they were successful missionaries, 
but we have no details of their work. They both belonged to that 
class of real Christians who give Christ the supremacy in all things. 
Their family name was Diamont, and their native State was New 
Jersey. 

In 1854 David Lowry visited the Cumberland Presbyterian 
Board of Missions and appealed to its members for more help for 
the Indians. The board resolved to send him to the Indian 
country on a tour of inspection, clothing him with authority to 
appoint missionaries if he could find men suitable for the work. 
He made a very thorough investigation and submitted a report to 
the board. Some extracts from this report are here appended : 

I traveled several hundred miles through the Choctaw Nation and 
preached wherever opportunity offered. The Rev. S. Corley, of Texas, 
was appointed to ride and oreach in this countrv one half of his time. 



Chapter XXXI.] MISSIONS. 329 

His appointment and acceptance are herewith submitted. He is well 
known among the Indians, and no preacher could exert a stronger 
influence over them. He resides within thirty miles of their country, 
and his circuit will embrace a few congregations on the border of Texas, 
west of Red River. In preaching to the Indians he may have to employ 
occasionally an interpreter, and in view of such contingency his appoint- 
ment permits him to draw on the board for a sum not exceeding fifty 
dollars. Two native Cumberland Presbyterian preachers, Israel Folsom 
and Payson Wiliston, have been appointed to ride and preach as exten- 
sively as their circumstances will permit, and report to the board quar- 
terly. Their appointments are herewith submitted. Mr. Folsom is an 
ordained preacher, and his ministerial services among his people have 
been greatly blessed. Mr. Wiliston is a licentiate and full Indian. He 
is a man of much promise, and capable of doing great good ; but he is 
poor and has a family depending on him, and can not preach extensively 
without aid from the board. He was in debt for a horse, and twenty 
dollars of missionary funds were appropriated to liquidate this debt. 

Some preparatory steps were taken for the purpose of establishing 
schools and permanent missions in the Indian country, but no final 
action was taken. Although it is desirable to locate schools for the 
intellectual improvement of the Indians, yet my conviction is that itin- 
erant preaching is more loudly called for now among the Choctaws 
than any other service the Cumberland Presbyterian church can render. 
Many of their children have gone through the ordinary course of edu- 
cation at the schools and academies, and have returned to their homes 
without any deep religious impressions and are now entirely destitute of 
religious instruction. Their former teachers (though most of them 
ministers of the gospel) being confined to their schools, can not follow 
them with the word of life; therefore, unless itinerants can.be intro- 
duced, it is difficult to see how they can be brought under the power of 
the gospel. They have abandoned the heathen religion, but they have 
not yet embraced Christianity, but it is believed that no people are more 
accessible to the truth than the educated Choctaws, could they be blessed 
with a zealous ministry. 

Under the act of the late Choctaw legislature, ten boys were sent 
by me to Tennessee, to learn trades, and one came on his own responsi- 
bility to study law. Six of these boys have been bound as apprentices in 
Nashville and two in McMinnville. One is preparing for the ministry, 
and another has been put to school. I am happy to learn that thus 
far these boys are well pleased, and that they are receiving sympathy 
and encouragement in the communities where they reside. I shall con- 
fidently expect another company of boys to enter the university in .the 
course of the winter. 



330 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period i v. 

Mr. Lowry's report gives also a brief history of all trie missions 
under other churches throughout the Indian country. The Cum- 
berland Presbyterian Board pressed the work begun by Lowry. 
The Rev. R. W. Baker was added to the corps of itinerant preach- 
ers. He proved a faithful and successful missionary. Corley also 
was a true and noble Christian minister. They by their joint 
labors, aided by the Rev. Israel Folsom and other native preach- 
ers, brought into the church that year over six hundred members. 

In 1855 Baker was placed by the board over Armstrong Acad- 
emy, Choctaw Nation. In 1859 tnis school had one hundred 
pupils. Baker, while managing this mission school, still kept up 
his preaching, though within a smaller circle. The same year the 
board resolved to have a school for the Chickasaws. This was 
called Burney Academy. Its opening was delayed by the tardiness 
of the builder. The Chickasaw Nation furnished the buildings, 
and the board furnished the teachers. The Rev. F. D. Piner was 
appointed the first superintendent. In 1859 the Rev. R. S. Bell 
and his wife were sent by the board to teach the Chickasaw girls. 
Bell remained at his post all through the war, though all help 
from the board was cut off. All our Indian missionaries were 
exposed to hardships, but perhaps none of them suffered so much 
as R. S. Bell. 

Israel Folsom was a strong man and a genuine Indian. He 
manifested a most touching devotion to the interests of his people. 
The writer of this history can never forget his last interview with 
him. If one could write an accent, or put the modulation and the 
emotional vibrations of the voice into a written sentence, then 
might the full meaning of Folsom's words about that portion of 
the Indian population which he, with flowing tears, said was rap- 
idly lapsing back into barbarism be expressed on a printed page. 
One of his appeals to the board deserves a place here. The letter 
is addressed to the secretary of the Board of Missions. 

Near Fort Washita, Choctaw Nation, ) 

December 30, 1852. [ 

Brother Isaac Shook: — I hope you will not become tired of me. 

Will you once more listen to my words as I speak ? A child starving 

for want of bread can not be satisfied with any thing short of it. Here 

are people starving for the lack of the bread of life, and they will not 



Chapter XXXI.] MISSIONS. 331 

be satisfied with any thing else. I have been called upon again and 
again to go and preach to the people living twenty, forty, eighty, and 
one hundred and forty miles off. Not that I was any better than other 
preachers, but they hunger and thirst after the bread of life, and many 
of them tell me they want a Cumberland Presbyterian minister to 
preach to them. They reject no minister of any name. They would 
be glad to hear any preaching. I am speaking for those who spoke to 
me desiring to hear Cumberland Presbyterian preaching as their choice. 
It has been impossible for me to go and preach to them. We want 
help. We need it right now. Can you not send us one young minis- 
ter, full of the Spirit of God, to preach to these people? By this way 
he could acquaint himself with the real wants of this Nation, and fur- 
nish your board with important information in reference to establishing 
a mission. 

I have a complaint in my body which disables me from riding out 
and preaching. I also have a large family to provide for. It is out of 
my power to labor as much as I did formerly, and I do need help. Can 
you do any thing for us? I believe you can; I believe you are willing. 
The prayers of a righteous man availeth much, and through your 
prayers we may expect help in due time. Send a missionary to my 
house, and let him make my house his home; he will be boarded and have 
his washing done for nothing, and his horse fed free. And I will also 
instruct him in acquiring the Choctaw language, that he may preach in 
the native tongue. 

In going out to preach through different parts of the country where 

he is known as a preacher, the people will not charge him. But there 

are some who care very little for the gospel, that would no doubt charge. 

The missionary sent should have a good English education, at least. . . 

Yours in Christ, Israel Folsom. 

Here is a letter from an Indian chief to the Board of Missions: 

Choctaw Nation, May 13, 1853. 

Brother Shook: — I never saw you, but have often heard of you. 
It would give me much satisfaction to see and speak with you about the 
salvation of my people. I understand you have labored to send a man 
among my people to teach them the way of life. I thank you. I trust 
God will bless your labors. I once thought of going to the General 
Assembly, but have failed. 

The word of God says, "The Son of man is come to seek and to 
save that which was lost." If any could be said to be lost whom the 
Son of man came to seek and to save, I think the poor red man may 
truly be placed among them. God did not reject us, but came to seek 
and save us. We hope that his friends will not reject us. I hope that 



333 



Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iv. 



your board will soon send a man in the name of Christ to come, and 
seek and save the poor lost red man. Our foes are many and powerful. 
Our woes are heavy on us. We are distressed on every side. We want 
friends and help. Shall we find them in the Cumberland church? It 
seems now that the last and only hope for aid to be relied upon is the 
church of Christ. Shall we hope that the Cumberland Presbyterian 
church will send us help? Brother, pardon me for the liberty I take to 
write to you. I desire, only the good of my people. 

Your brother in Christ, George Folsom, 

Chief of Pushimataha District. 

Besides the earnest old Choctaw, Israel Folsom, who was the first 
native Cumberland Presbyterian preacher, and to whom the Mis- 
sionary Board gave some small salary, several other natives also 
entered the ministry during this period. Several Indians, both 
Chickasaws and Chocktaws, came to our church schools in Tennes- 
see. Among them there was occasionally found a young man pre- 
paring for the ministry. 

Though these missions were more recent than Robert Bell's in 
Mississippi, yet none of the missionaries preserved for us journals 
or other data for a full history, as Robert Bell did. We see now 
only the fruits of their toil, in native preachers, churches, and 
presbyteries. 

Besides the regular native preachers who co-operated with Corley 
and Baker, they also called to their aid a considerable number of 
Christian laymen from the native churches. These traveled with 
them during " the camp-meeting season " each year. One of these 
whom they called Frazier, was especially valuable to the mission- 
aries. He could interpret for them. Occasionally when translating 
the preacher's words he would break forth in an exhortation of his 
own. Mr. Corley, who was more dependent on the interpreter 
than any of the other missionaries, became greatly attached to 
Frazier. The board often called for more men for this work, but 
failed to get half the number called for. Still the work done and 
the results obtained were of great and lasting importance. 

Though the voice of every General Assembly recommended 
co-operation with the American Board in foreign work, yet there was 
a growing feeling in favor of having our own foreign missionaries 
under the Cumberland Presbyterian Board. It was argued that the 



Chapter XXXI.] MISSIONS. 333 

strength of the church could not be brought fully into service for the 
Master until our people engaged directly in the foreign work. It 
was said also that the church had no means of knowing what its 
congregations were doing for Foreign Missions, that it was not 
known whether our people were asleep or awake. It was urged, 
too, that the church and the ministry needed the inspiration and 
the training which nothing but work in the foreign field could 
give. These and many similar arguments finally prevailed. But 
the relations with the American Board were not at once severed. 
Our congregations were left free to contribute to that board. For 
many years our people continued to send help to the foreign work 
through that channel. 

The first Cumberland Presbyterian missionary to a distant land 
was Edmond Weir, whose work was in Liberia, Africa. This mis- 
sion was opened providentially. Weir was a young colored man, 
who was licensed to preach and afterward ordained by Anderson 
Presbytery, in Kentucky. Though a slave, he had succeeded in 
securing a good education. The American colonization move- 
ment was then enlisting many in all the Southern States. Many 
slaves were manumitted and sent to Liberia. Among these were 
two older brothers of Edmond Weir, who had secured a good edu- 
cation. They studied law, and on their arrival in Liberia entered 
the practice of this profession. Edmond Weir wanted to go to 
Africa as a preacher of the gospel. He was manumitted and sent 
to Liberia for that purpose. Through the influence of his brothers 
he was elected sheriff. Frorh this office he secured a living and 
preached without salary. In 1857, five years after his removal to 
Africa, he came back to America in order to secure missionary help. 
He wanted money and men. The board commissioned him as mis- 
sionary, and sent him out among the churches to raise funds to 
build a house of worship. 

The Watchman and Evangelist, published at Louisville, Ken- 
tucky, mentions Weir's visit to that city, and says that a large 
audience greeted him at the Cumberland Presbyterian church, and 
that his address was listened to with great attention, and that a lib- 
eral collection was taken up for the mission. The ladies of the First 
Cumberland Presbyterian church of Louisville organized a society 



334' Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iv. 

1 * for the purpose of affording such aid as the Liberia Mission might 
need in the way of clothing and school books. ' ' 

The Board of Missions, through its president, the Rev. F. R. Cos- 
sitt, published a stirring appeal to the ministers and members of the 
church in behalf of this mission. In this appeal the board urged 
upon our people the force of Christ's command, "Go ye into all 
the world and preach the gospel ; ' ' and pointed out the crying need 
for missionary work in Africa, declaring that no church which 
neglected the Lord's great commission could long live and prosper. 
It called attention to the providential circumstances which led the 
board to undertake this mission. On going to Liberia, Mr. Weir 
had found a number of people who had been Cumberland Presby- 
terians before their removal from the United States. While some 
of these had joined other churches, there were many who had pre- 
ferred to wait for the providence of God to open the way for them 
to unite with a church of their own faith. This mission seemed to 
be God's appointed means of opening the way. It was proposed to 
establish the mission at Cape Mount, a thriving sea-coast town, near 
which Weir had settled, and where there was no church. The 
board stated in its appeal that the missionary had already received 
six hundred dollars for his building, and that this was not quite 
half the sum needed. 

He was finally successful in raising the money, but the board's 
call asking those who owned colored Cumberland Presbyterian 
preachers to set them free so that they might be sent with Weir to 
Liberia, was not successful. Weir returned alone, and amid many 
discouragements, carried on his solitary work in Africa. At one 
time he received a request from the king of a neighboring tribe to 
send Mrs. Weir to be governess for the king's daughters. The 
proposition was not according to Mr. Weir's fancies. Mrs. Weir 
had her heart set on other things, as an extract from a letter writ- 
ten by her to Mrs. Hunter will show. In this letter she describes 
the kind of clothing needed by the boys in the mission — "trousers 
and shirts made of any kind of cloth." She speaks of her desire 
to help the native girls as well as the boys, and of the pleasure she 
would take in making clothes for these poor heathen children if the 
material could be furnished her. She adds with touching simplicity : 



Chapter XXXI.] MISSIONS. 335 

"You do not know how glad I am to help in the work of God 
among the heathen in this dark part of the world. 5 ' Her letter 
continues : 

My health is indifferent, and has been for some time. I need the 
prayers of all the praying friends in America. I expect to open a reg- 
ular day school for the native children. All that I ask of my friends is 
a few common books. I beg the friends not to deny me these. I know 
that I can 't do this work of myself^but I know that God can and will 
help me. He has helped me. About one year and six months ago we 
had a small boy given to us out of the Goler country. When he came 
he had no clothing, and I gave him a piece of calico to put around him- 
self; he went so about a month. I could not bear that. Mr. Weir told 
me to take some of his garments and make clothes for the boy. I did 
so. We named him Willa. It Was a long time before I could get him 
to understand. I tried and tried until I thought my work was in vain. 
But at last his stammering tongue was loosed. On the 26th of July was 
our day of celebration, and we also examined our Sabbath School. 
Willa was in the midst and recited some verses which he had com- 
mitted to memory. 

The voice of the board was in favor of China as a field in which 
to begin work for the heathen. To this, however, there was one 
exception. Dr. Cossitt, while saying nothing against other fields, 
kept pleading the cause of Japan. Meantime four young men in 
Cumberland University offered themselves simultaneously to the 
board for the foreign work. The General Assembly was consulted, 
but there was unaccountable delay. These four young men made 
other engagements. Then the Rev. J. C. Armstrong, a graduate 
of the theological school at Iyebanon, Tennessee, felt special im- 
pressions to go to Turkey as a missionary. In 1859 ne offered 
himself to the Board of Missions for this special work. His offer 
was accepted, and the board sent him out as an agent to raise funds 
for his mission. He was quite successful in this agency and by the 
General Assembly in May, i860, he was specially consecrated to his 
work as a missionary to Turkey. The story of this mission belongs 
to the next period of this history. 



336 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iv. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 



PLANTING THE CHURCH IN THE NORTH-WEST. 
IOWA AND OTHER FIELDS. 

Through ways we have not known, 

We pass yet not alone 

From height to height, 

To dwell with Him in light. 

The Lord shall lead us on. 

— Miss Latkbury. 

THE beginnings of the work of Cumberland Presbyterians 
in Iowa before trie close of the third period (1842) were so 
small that it has seemed best to reserve the history of the origin of 
the church in that State for this chapter. 

When David Lowry, in 1834, planted his mission in Iowa, 
the whole of that country except some small settlements was 
occupied by Indians, though treaties for its cession had been 
agreed upon. There were no Protestant churches on Iowa soil. 
At the points where Indian agents were stationed there were United 
States troops and some French families. 

Mr. Lowry organized the first church of our people, and the 
first Protestant church in Iowa, in 1834. It was composed of sol- 
diers, officers of the United States army, government employes, 
and a few Indians. When the Indians and soldiers were removed 
that was the end of the organization. 

Iowa was organized as a separate Territory with its own Terri- 
torial government in 1838. Three years before this a Cumberland 
Presbyterian minister, the Rev. Joseph Howard, settled among the 
emigrants in Iowa. The next year, May, 1836, the Rev. Cyrus 
Hay nes traveled in this country and organized a church in Mr. 
Howard's house. Counting Mr. Lowry's organization at the mis- 
sion, this church in Mr. Howard's house was the second Cumber- 
land Presbyterian congregation in Iowa. At the organization of 



Chapter XXXII.] THE NORTH-WEST. 337 

this church Mr. Haynes baptized Mr. Howard's infant son. That 
son is now the Rev. J. S. Howard, of Oxford, Mississippi. 

In 1853 the Rev. J. G. White was laboring in Iowa as an inde- 
pendent evangelist, that is independent of any salary from church 
boards. The first camp-meeting of which mention is made was 
held by him and B. B. Bonham, August 1843, at Mt. Pleasant. 
Thirteen professions were reported. 

Like all the pioneer congregations in the new Territories, each 
of these Iowa Cumberland Presbyterian churches embraced a large 
area, requiring several preaching places. In 1844 the Sangamon 
Synod ordered J. G. White, B. B. Bonham, Joseph Howard, and J. 
M. Stockton to constitute the Iowa Presbytery. In 1846 there 
were nine congregations represented in this presbytery. 

In 1848 the Rev. Neil Johnson rode the circuit in Iowa, and 
received from the settlers two hundred and fifteen dollars for his 
services. There were then six ordained ministers (one had been 
deposed), and twelve congregations in Iowa Presbytery. 

All through this early period there were in Iowa many Mormons 
and Catholics. Ruffianism was everywhere. Whisky and pistols, 
outlaws and murderers, mingled with the heterogeneous mass of 
emigrants. It required preachers with sterling courage to make 
their way in the midst of such a population. Men like J. G. 
White seemed to enjoy such hardships and perils. The Rev. John 
Cameron and the Rev. Wm. Lynn are also mentioned among the 
pioneers of Iowa, 1 but no facts or incidents connected with their 
work have been secured. The Rev Benjamin Hall was among the 
successful laborers in that field. 

It was a favorite scheme of David Lowry to concentrate in Iowa, 
Wisconsin, and Minnesota a strong home missionary force. One 
of the warmest debates ever heard in the rooms of the Missionary 
Board at Lebanon, Tennessee, was on that question. That debate is 
mentioned in Dr. Richard Beard's diary, and he speaks in terms of 
the deepest mortification and regret about the failure of Mr. Low- 
ry's plans. Several of his letters, written to Lowry, on this sub- 
ject are preserved. 

x The Rev. R. A. Ferguson's MS. Ferguson himself has spent most of his life 
in that field. 
22 



338 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iv. 

In 1856 the board commissioned the Rev. J. C. Armstrong to 
go as missionary to the North-west. It was Mr. L,owry's wish that 
the missionary should begin his work at Prairie du Chien. Taking 
letters of introduction, this young man, just out of the theological 
school, set out for his first field of labor. The Rev. J. M. B. Roach, 
who was appointed to accompany him, failed in health, and Arm- 
strong went alone. On his arrival at Prairie du Chien, he found 
little but ruins. The town and Fort Crawford were gone. The 
church where General Zachary Taylor had regularly attended Mr. 
dowry's preaching was gone. Only a few settlers remained. 

A citizen of Iowa, named P. C. Balsinger, was a sporting gentle- 
man, who kept race-horses, and who was wealthy. Armstrong had 
a letter of introduction to C. C. Balsinger, and, supposing this per- 
son to be the one intended, he presented his letter. Mr. Balsinger 
read it with a look of scorn and wrath, then tossed it back to Arm- 
strong, saying: "Sir, I am not the man; this man lives away 
down on Turkey River." Armstrong, after some further conver- 
sation with him, set out for Turkey River. He found the right 
Balsinger this time, and met a most cordial welcome. This man 
was the father of the horse-racer, and was a Pennsylvanian who 
had been converted at one of John Morgan's meetings. 

The missionary appointed a camp-meeting at Mr. Balsinger' s. 
When this meeting began the races at Colesburg were going on. 
Great crowds of people passed the encampment, going to the races. 
Armstrong, though without ministerial assistance, went bravely 
on with the daily services. Monday, the fourth day of the meet- 
ing, a strange scene was witnessed. Loaded wagons began coming 
in from Colesburg, and kept coming. All these wagons brought 
tents, provisions, and families, coming to attend the camp-meeting. 
Among others who came was the sporting gentleman, P. C. Balsin- 
ger, with his family. When the call for mourners was made, Mr. 
Balsinger, the horse-racer, rose and made a talk. He said he had 
been under conviction ever since he read Armstrong's letter of in- 
troduction, and was now determined to seek his soul's salvation. 
Then, turning to his seven sons who had come with him to the 
camp-meeting, he asked the people to pray for him and his boys. 
He found the Savior that day, and his conversion gave new life to 



Chapter XXXII.] THE NORTH-WEST. 339 

the meetings. A great revival followed. The converted horse-racer 
was a man of great liberality. Each day he would mount the pulpit 
and invite everybody to come and eat with him at his tent. 

Out of this meeting grew the Hopewell church, which Arm- 
strong organized, making P. C. Balsinger an elder therein. This 
elder made a large-hearted and faithful worker for Jesus. At this 
meeting the wife, daughter, and two sons of a Roman Catholic 
were converted. Almost at the risk of their lives by the enraged 
drunken husband and father, they joined the Cumberland Presby- 
terian church. 

On an Indian pathway, at some springs in the prairie, there had 
grown up a little village called Waukon. Thither Armstrong next 
directed his steps. His work there was owned of Heaven, and 
many souls were converted. In September, 1856, he organized the 
Waukon church with thirty-one members. When the missionary 
left this field in 1859, Waukon congregation had built a house of 
worship, and paid for it. 

In July, 1857, through Armstrong's importunities, the Rev. P. H. 
Crider was sent by the Missionary Board to his assistance, Arm- 
strong guaranteeing missionary money enough from Iowa to meet 
the salary. In this arrangement his trust in the pioneers was not 
disappointed. The following letter gives a glimpse of Mr. Arm- 
strong's labors in this field: 

Waukon, Iowa, Sept. 15th, 1856. 

The prospects are still bright here. My strength failed after I wrote 
last, and I closed the meetings. But as the interest was still great in the 
town, I afterward resumed the work, and we had meetings four nights, 
resulting in five conversions, making in all twenty-nine. Our little 
band, organized the 21st of August, now numbers forty-four members. 
Owing to the want of a house, we have not had our meetings regularly, 
but will resume them again to-night. 

On Thursday next I will start again for Colesburg, sixty miles dis- 
tant, and will hold a meeting in that town 

Waukon is improving very rapidly. Our Sabbath- school is ably 
conducted. The number in attendance yesterday was 114, with increas- 
ing interest. The Maine Law is enforced to the letter in town. The 
Temperance Association has 200 members. We have a joint stock of 
seven thousand dollars to enforce the Liquor Law. Nearly sixty houses 
were built in all in 1856. 



34o 



Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iv. 









Colesburg is a larger town than Waukon, and much older, but 
Satan has had almost supreme dominion in that* community. The 
Protestant churches there are not much more than a name. They have 
been daubed with untempered mortar. The truth startles them, enrag- 
ing some, and breaking down many. Members of the different churches 
were seen crowding to the anxious seat, and crying for mercy at our late 
revival. Pray for us, for we are a needy few, often assailed and perse- 
cuted. J. C. Armstrong. 

In 1857, Armstrong and Crider, and the Rev. Joshua Loughran, 
of Wisconsin, organized the Colesburg Presbytery, extending from 
forty degrees north latitude to the North Pole. In 1858 the Rev. 
D. A. Houghton came into the Cumberland Presbyterian church 
from the Congregationalists, and took charge of the upper Iowa 
mission. 

In these missions the pioneer preachers suffered many priva- 
tions, and were often exposed to danger. Once Armstrong was shot 
at while in the pulpit preaching. At a camp-meeting a mob came 
to kill him, but others gathered to his defense and he was unhurt. 
He says he often went where there was danger of being killed, but 
God took care of him. He was never harmed. The pioneers con- 
tributed liberally to his support. 

In Iowa at this time (1886) there is one small Cumberland Pres- 
byterian synod composed of three small presbyteries, with an aggre- 
gate of seventeen ordained ministers and six licentiates, but no 
candidates. In that field, and everywhere, the perpetuation and 
growth of the church demand that the money and the prayers of 
our people be devoted to raising up a home supply of preachers. 

There have been Cumberland Presbyterian missions in several 
other north-western States. Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota 
have all been visited by individual enterprise. In 1859 the Mis- 
sionary Board reported that the Rev. A. H. Houghton had been 
commissioned to travel and preach in northern Iowa and southern 
Minnesota. There is no record of the extent of his success in 
Minnesota. In i860 the board's report again mentioned Houghton 
as missionary in this field, and adds, "He is doing a good work." 
In 1857 ^e board resolved to establish a mission in St. Cloud,Min- 
nesota. Some money was raised for that purpose, but no mission- 
ary was sent. 'The work dragged along till the war put an end to 



Chapter XXXII.] THE NORTH-WEST. 341 

such enterprises. Good meetings were held in several of these 
north-western States, and some feeble churches were organized, 
but the population being made up of emigrants from States where 
there are no Cumberland Presbyterians, it was the more difficult 
for our people to gain a permanent foothold. Among the early 
settlers in Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Oregon, California, and 
Washington, there was a large Cumberland Presbyterian element, 
therefore these States and Territories offered more inviting fields 
for our ministers. 

Our Church has sometimes tried to press its way into fields 
where there was no providential opening, but the results have 
never been satisfactory. There are fields where others are mani- 
festly chosen of God to bear his name to the perishing, and where 
Cumberland Presbyterians are not so chosen; and there are othei 
fields where our people have a high mission to fill simultaneously 
with others. Let us follow the divine leading. 



342 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iv. 



CHAPTER XXXIII 



OREGON AND CALIFORNIA- 1844 TO i860. 

By dust of earth encumbered, 

None prized the precious stone; 
Christ looked on it and loved it: 

How fair his gem hath grown! 

— Anna Ship ton. 

CALIFORNIA gold was not the precious stone, but the dust 
which encumbered it. God rules, and he has used even 
man's lust for riches as a means of carrying the gospel to multi- 
tudes of perishing immortals. The work of the Cumberland Pres- 
byterian church on the Pacific coast began in Oregon, and extended 
from that field to California. 

Oregon was disputed territory till 1846. The claimants had 
been Spain, England, and the United States, but in 1818 Spain 
relinquished all her claims in favor of the United States. Both 
Great Britain and America, knowing the great difficulties which 
beset this question, shrank for many years from attempting a set- 
tlement of boundaries. Fur companies with their employes were 
there from both nations, and with no kindly feeling toward each 
other. The first meetings of commissioners to settle the bounda- 
ries ended in nothing but an agreement to postpone the difficulty, 
and leave the pioneers to joint occupation of the country. While 
treaties in 1846 averted a war and settled the boundaries, yet it was 
not till 1848 that Oregon was organized as a Territory of the 
United States with regular territorial government. 

The difficulties in the way of colonizing Oregon by the Ameri- 
cans were so great that prominent writers in British quarterlies 
prophesied that it would never be done. x The route by sea around 
Cape Horn, and the route overland across the great desert and the 
Rocky Mountains, were alike appalling. In spite of these difficul- 

x See Edinburgh Review, 1843. 



Chapter XXXIII.] OREGON AND CALIFORNIA. 343 

ties two Methodist preachers (L,ee and Shepherd) took a colony of 
Americans to Oregon in 1834, twelve years before the boundary 
question was settled. It was a daring thing, but it was done. 
This colony of Methodists went by sea, and settled in Willamette 
Valley. 

Fur traders and government expeditions began to call attention 
to the overland route. Mr. Parker, the missionary, led a band 
over the dreadful desert and across the Rocky Mountains in 1835. 
Next year the ill-fated mission of Whitman, Gray, and Spaulding 
(American Board) was planted in Oregon. 

All this time American settlers in Oregon had to encounter 
hostile Indians and unfriendly English fur traders. They settled, 
too, on soil whose ownership was still in dispute. They reached 
their destination through dangers, trials, and losses rarely paral- 
leled. In 1839 the following list of prices on Green River was 
published for the information of emigrants. Whisky (of course 
this came first), three dollars a pint. Dogs (for food), fifteen dol- 
lars apiece. Tobacco, five dollars per pound. Flour, none to be 
had. Whisky, dogs, tobacco — that was the bill of fare ! 

The first Cumberland Presbyterian who undertook to plant a 
colony in Oregon was the Rev. J. A. Cornwall. He made his call 
for colonists in 1844, two years before the war-cloud which grew 
out of the boundary question passed away. It was 1846 when his 
colony reached Oregon. The Rev. J. B. Braly and his family 
went in 1847. I^ on g afterward Mrs. Braly ( u Aunt Sue ") often re- 
cited the story of this daring journey. They started in 1846, but 
halted on the Platte till the next year. Indians dogged their steps, 
and sometimes stole their cattle. One favorite method with the 
red men was to stampede these animals. Overland emigrants 
relied mainly on cattle. Every family took as many oxen as pos- 
sible. Cows, too, were sometimes yoked to draw the wagons, or 
driven in herds. Cattle not only endured the journey better than 
horses, but they constituted the most desirable property after the 
journey was finished. For mutual protection large numbers of 
families formed a company, elected a captain, gave him almost mil- 
itary authority, and traveled in one band or u train. " Thus an 
army of cattle was brought together. These animals in vast 



344 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iv. 

herds, frightened and stampeded, became as destructive as a tor- 
nado. After they were thus scattered they could never all be gath- 
ered together again. A stampeded train meant the death of many 
an emigrant during the stampede, and starvation to many another 
afterward. 

On his arrival in Oregon Mr. Braly stopped with his family at 
Whitman's mission. There he found a most welcome rest for him- 
self and his family, and he felt disposed to remain till thoroughly 
recruited. To this, however, there arose an obstacle. Mrs. Braly 
told him one day that she felt an overwhelming presentiment of 
evil, and could not consent to remain at Whitman's any longer. 
Mr. Braly expostulated, but "Aunt Sue" said, "I'll die if I have 
to stay one day longer. ' ' The result was that Braly took up his 
line of march for other portions of Oregon. He was just in time, 
for soon after his departure the whole country was ringing with the 
tidings of the horrid massacre by the Indians of all the people at 
Whitman's Station. 

It was generally believed by the Protestants that this deed was 
instigated by the Jesuit priests, who were exceedingly averse to 
having Protestant missions established in that country. There 
was an independent provisional government in the territory be- 
longing to no nation, but watched by English and Americans alike. 
The militia under the control of this government went in pursuit 
of the murderers of the missionaries. Mr. Braly' s horses were 
pressed into the service by these militia-men, but he afterward 
recovered them. There was an official investigation of the charges 
against the Jesuit priests, but the story of this massacre does not 
belong to this history. 

Some facts concerning emigration to Oregon at this early period 
will be of service in explaining the work of the first Cumberland 
Presbyterian preachers in that country. Some statements about a 
body of eight hundred emigrants (1843) are q. uoted from tne Over- 
land Monthly: 

Successful as the first large emigration was in safely reaching east- 
ern Oregon, the emigrants found one of the most difficult portions of 
their journey would be the passage of the Cascade Mountains with 
their families, household stuff, wagons, and stock. Upon arriving at 



Chapter XXXIII.] OREGON AND CALIFORNIA. 345 

the Dalles, very few of these eight hundred people had any provisions 
left. Neither had the colonists made any preparations for them. Many 
of them had left their exhausted cattle in the Walla Walla country to 
recruit until spring. Others expected to drive theirs into the Willa- 
mette Valley by a narrow pack-trail, over which it was impossible to 
take the wagons. In this extremity the very corporation they had been 
taught to fear and dislike came to their assistance, with food for the 
starving families and boats for transportation down the Columbia. 
Those who could not pay fared as well as those who could. The colo- 
nists had made no preparation for the reception of the eight hundred 
new settlers; neither was there food nor shelter for all these people, nor 
teams to break up the sod, nor seed to put in the earth for the next 
year's provisions. Credit had to be extended to large numbers of these 
people, whose little. all was exhausted by the long and wasting journey 
from the Mississippi to the Pacific Ocean. The colonists themselves 
could not relieve such a number. The mission store had no authority 
to give credit; the few small traders already in the country would not. 
Dr. McLaughlin alone was both able and willing. Thus none of the 
immigrants suffered as they must have suffered without this assistance. 

Dr. McLaughlin was the agent of the Hudson Bay Fur Com- 
pany (British), and for this kindness to American emigrants he was 
deprived of his office. 

One of the keen disappointments which immigrants encount- 
ered was that which they met after reaching Oregon. They 
reached the high mountains of Oregon with exhausted and starv- 
ing teams. To their amazement and horror they often found it 
impossible to cross these mountains before another year. Thus 
the Rev. J. A. Cornwall and his party were forced to tarry through 
the winter of 1846. When spring came nearly all the cattle and 
other property belonging to these .suffering immigrants was gone, 
and they made their way to the settlements under difficulties which 
no pen can describe. 

The Rev. Neil Johnson went to Oregon in 1851, and the Rev. 
J. H. D. Henderson in 1852. Johnson lost nearly all his earthly 
possessions on the journey. Many emigrants in 1852 perished on 
the way. Johnson, while on his journey, writes thus to one of the 
church papers: 

There are a few things connected with the journey that are far 
from being pleasant. The first is the weather. Scarcely a day passes 



346 



Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iv. 



without a storm of rain and hail and thunder and lightning all com- 
bined, and sometimes these continue for many hours together. This, 
combined with a scarcity of fuel, often makes the emigrant feel any 
thing but comfortable. The scarcity of fuel is quite an inconvenience. 
What there is in the way of wood consists mainly of cottonwood and 
willow. These are generally found on islands in the river, and may be 
obtained by wading from fifty to one hundred yards. But for days 
together you will travel and not see so much as a riding switch. Then 
your alternative for fuel is "buffalo chips " — a very poor substitute, espe- 
cially in wet weather. Or drift-wood may be found in some places 
along the margin of the river; or occasionally the remains of an emi- 
grant's wagon. But little calculation can be made on the latter, from 
the fact that when a wagon is to be left it is nearly all burned by the 
company before leaving camp. . . . The abundance of alkali water has 
caused many a poor ox to leave his bones to bleach on the prairie. 
This extends at intervals for a thousand miles of the journey all along 
Platte River, and until you reach Big Sandy. Should you get along 
early in the season the danger is not so great; but when the dry season 
sets in, and the ravines cease to run, then look out for poison. The 
common remedy when cattle are poisoned is lard, fat bacon, or citric 
acid. These, if administered in time, generally give relief. .... 

Another Cumberland Presbyterian emigrant while on this 
dreary journey writes about the cholera thus: 

The dead are disposed of in a summary manner. The grave is dug 
as soon as the breath leaves the body. This occupies about half an 
hour; not that graves are dug so shallow, but the earth is so sandy and 
soft that the work is soon accomplished. The corpse is then borne 
upon a blanket, or some of the bed-clothes upon which the person died, 
and let down into its final abode, this blanket answering for winding- 
sheet and coffin. The sand is then replaced, the name, residence, date 
of death, etc., inscribed upon a board placed at the head, and the train 
is all probably under way again in thirty minutes. In such graves hun- 
dreds are sleeping. 

In 1852 the emigration was so large that the grass was ex- 
hausted, and the emigrants who started late not only lost all their 
cattle and other property, but a great many of the men and women 
perished on the journey. Through such difficulties as these the 
first Cumberland Presbyterian preachers made their way to Oregon. 
Our first congregation in Oregon was organized by Mr. Cornwall, 
aided by J. E. Braly. The Rev. Neil Johnson has published 



Chapter XXXIII.] OREGON AND CALIFORNIA. 347 

a historical sketch of our church in that country, which shows 
that the organization of the Oregon Presbytery was ordered in 
1847, an ^ tn * s order was carried out November 3, 1851. The 
members present were Neil Johnson, J. A. Cornwall, and Joseph 
Robertson. The Rev. A. W. Sweeney was present as a visitor. 
Licensed preachers present: B. F. Music and John Dillard. Four 
congregations were represented. A great revival was reported. 
Braly had gone to California, as had many private members. 

In 1853 this frontier presbytery resolved to have a college. It 
raised the money and built a house. It secured a $20,000 scholar- 
ship endowment. It employed a graduate of Waynesburg College 
for president, and opened the institution. The infidels of Eugene 
City, where the school was located, were its bitter enemies. In a 
few weeks some incendiary burned down the buildings. A hall 
was rented for temporary use, and other buildings erected. The 
teaching force was enlarged, and the school had one hundred and 
fifty pupils when the buildings were again destroyed by fire. Then 
our people erected a fire-proof building, but unfortunately went in 
debt for a large part of the work. The infidels started a rival 
enterprise, and struggled to alienate those who had promised to 
contribute for the erection of the fire-proof buildings. By reason 
of accumulated disasters payments were not met, and the buildings 
were sold for debt. This ended the college enterprise. Private 
schools, however, were kept up by our people in different parts of 
Oregon with good results. 

A manuscript sketch of the history of our church in Oregon, 
prepared by the venerable Jacob Gillespie, gives some additional par- 
ticulars about the fire-proof college building. It seems that a storm 
came and swept away the roof after the building was nearly com- 
pleted. Mr. Gillespie also mentions some other struggles of the 
Oregon churches to secure educational facilities. Surely they have 
had to brave many difficulties. Gillespie gives a graphic picture 
of the scattered condition of our people in that country. Oregon 
included at first the whole of what is now Washington Territory, 
and was once thought to extend to 54 40' north latitude. In a 
territory large enough for an empire a half dozen preachers and a 
few feeble churches were scattered here and there. 



348 



Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iv. 



The Rev. T. H. Small and the Rev. Jacob Gillespie were among 
these pioneer preachers in Oregon. 

All these men had to earn their own bread. The immigrants 
were generally poor, and could not sustain pastors. There was no 
Cumberland Presbyterian minister in all the territory whose hands 
were freed from secular pursuits. Yet our preachers planted 
churches and worked patiently on. How valuable a consecrated 
minister, sustained by the Missionary Board for a few years, might 
have been ! The church did not have even one such helper on any 
part of the Pacific coast. 

Gillespie was one of the original members of Willamette Pres- 
bytery. He has been in the ministry over fifty-six years. He 
organized a congregation in Oregon thirty-seven years ago. He 
calls attention to the fact that the Cumberland Presbyterian minis- 
ters in Oregon are nearly all old men. 

Our church has three presbyteries in what once was Oregon 
Territory. The Oregon Presbytery has six ordained ministers and 
one licensed preacher. Walla Walla Presbytery has twelve ordained 
ministers and no probationers. The Willamette Presbytery has 
nine ordained ministers and two licentiates. This lack of a 
home supply of rising ministers is startling, and ought to send all 
the surviving pioneers in that field to God in earnest prayer that 
their own sons may be called into the ministry. 

It was not till 1859 that Oregon became a State in the American 
Union. It is still a new field with ample room for growth. 

The acquisition of California by the United States, and the dis- 
covery of gold there immediately afterward (1848), produced a rush 
of population from all parts of the world, such as perhaps never 
had a parallel. All the tongues of the earth mingled in the jargon 
that babbled about the mines. All grades of scholarship and cult- 
ure, as well as all grades of ignorance and vice, were represented 
among the gold diggers. A desert, waterless, treeless, foodless, 
stretching wider than Sahara, could not check the great rush from 
the States. The way was paved with skeletons, but the gold hunt- 
ers pressed on. Men perished in the snows of the Sierra Nevada 
Mountains, but other parties still kept coming with larger forces. 
California was peopled at once. 



Chapter XXXIII.] OREGON AND CALIFORNIA. 349 

The change from the sluggish progress under the padres, which 
had marked the last three hundred years of California life, was like 
waking from a vague dream and a quiet sleep in your own chamber 
to find yourself in the midst of a city which infuriated armies are 
sacking. Among these wild and motley masses at the mines, as 
well as among the dead who fell on the journey, were many mem- 
bers of the Cumberland Presbyterian church. Some of our minis- 
ters were also among these transient multitudes. 

All was transient. A city of tents would spring up where gold 
abounded, and if ' ' better diggings ' ' were discovered elsewhere, the 
city would vanish in a week, leaving perhaps a dozen Chinamen to 
rewash "the tailings." Four hundred thousand letters were re- 
turned from California to the dead letter office in a single year. 
The soldiers in our great civil war were more permanent and far 
more readily found than were these mining populations. 

Ruffians and Christian gentlemen, preachers and people, all 
alike went to California to dig gold. The scholarly clergyman girt 
himself with a revolver and shouldered his spade. Alas, too, that 
it should be necessary to add that some of these clergymen became 
notorious gamblers before they left the mines. A young minister 
was fitted out by the Rev. Hugh B. Hill and furnished money to 
go to California and preach to the miners. This was in the begin- 
ning of the great rush thither. This young man made his way to 
the Golden Gate, and there, after six months among the pioneers, 
set up a gambling saloon. Nor was his the only case of this kind. 
This unfortunate feature of the history of the church in California 
is mentioned that it may be known that our true men in that field 
had such traitors in their camp, and were crippled in their work 
for Jesus by their evil example. 

But some true men went with their families to California in 
1849, aiming to preach as much as was consistent with their cir- 
cumstances. They all had their own families to support. Our 
board sent no missionary to California until ten years later. The 
only men who remained true to their calling among the first Cum- 
berland Presbyterian preachers in that country were those who re- 
ceived no help from the Church. 

The first of these to arrive in California was Rev. John K. 



350 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iv. 

Braly. 1 He went from Oregon and settled first at Fremont. Put- 
ting up a canvas structure, he established a Christian boarding- 
house for the miners. He was then without property, but he soon 
made money. On the 4th of July, 1849, ne began his ministry to 
the gold diggers, Indians, and heathen. Some say his was the 
first Protestant preaching in California. 

Another true man and faithful minister in that field was the 
Rev. T. A. Ish. In a letter dated Sacramento City, March 25, 
1850, which was published in the Cumberland Presbyterian, he 
says he "left the land of civilization" on the 5th of May, 1849, 
and arrived in California September 12. In the latter part of the 
journey the cattle grew so weak that they had to be abandoned, 
and were left to perish in the desert. The letter continues: 

When I arrived here I was worn out with the fatigue of the jour- 
ney and much debilitated by an attack of fever. In a short time, how- 
ever, I recovered ray health, and it has been unusually good ever since. 
For a time I stopped in the vicinity of Fort Sutler, a town of four or 
five thousand inhabitants, mostly intelligent and energetic men. I aft- 
erward came to Sacramento City, and will probably stay here during 
my residence in California. I, with many others, had something of the 
gold fever, yet I could not content myself to sit down as an idler in the 
Lord's vineyard. After consulting a few of the brethren and friends, 
I resolved to make an effort to have a house of worship erected. The 
house is now completed, in good order, and is a comfortable room, well 
furnished, where some three or four hundred persons may comfortably 
sit and hear the gospel of peace. The city has so enlarged that we 
want several churches. You can not imagine how much good it did us 
on last Sabbath week, and yesterday, to meet in our church to worship 
together. The Rev. J. M. Cameron and myself have both preached 
each Sabbath since the completion of our room. He came to this city 
a few weeks since with his family, but he is talking of leaving this place 
and going lower down in the country. 

There are several substantial members of our church here, and I 
think we could after a while organize a tolerably respectable congrega- 
tion. We have enough ordained preachers in this' country to form a 
presbytery, but gold has such a distracting influence that I do not know 
whether they can be got together or not. The Rev. J. E. Braly is in 
the town of Fremont, twenty-five or thirty miles above Sacramento 

1 Some say the Rev. J. M. Small was first, but give no dates. I believe Braly 
was first. 



Chapter XXXIII.] OREGON AND CALIFORNIA. 351 

City. Brothers Mansfield and Moore are in the mines. These, as far as 
I know, are the only Cumberland Presbyterian preachers in this country. 
Here are people from every nation under heaven who much need 
the gospel. The harvest is white, but the laborers are few. Strikingly 
was my mind impressed last night at our prayer-meeting by the petition 
offered in every prayer, "Lord, send more laborers into thy vineyard!" 
This was sanctioned by hearty aniens from all the praying band. It is 
only now and then, amidst the busy throng, that I am permitted to see 
the face of a minister of the gospel. The Methodists have a good 
church here, and a faithful man to preach to them. The miners in 
many parts are said to be doing very well, obtaining from $16 to $50 
per day. 

The Rev. Cornelius Yager has long been a faithful Cumberland 
Presbyterian minister in California. With six motherless children 
he arrived in that country in 1850. He had a hard journey across 
the plains, and had to go immediately to work to earn bread. At 
first the only opportunity open to him for work and wages was to 
do hauling with his ox teams. From that day to this Mr. Yager 
has labored with his own hands for bread, preaching regularly on 
Sabbaths. Once, for the sake of sacred interests, he consented to 
represent his fellow-citizens in the legislature. A man of peace, a 
hard worker, a safe counselor, he has been of great service to our 
little churches in his adopted State. 

In 1854, Iyinville Dooley, a married man, and a candidate for 
the ministry, arrived with his family in California. He had been 
there as a gold miner before he made up his mind to enter the min- 
istry. This time he went to this country exclusively to preach 
Christ. He went at his own charges, with the deliberate purpose 
of bearing any and all privations that might come to him in the 
prosecution of his chosen life work. He has never swerved from 
this purpose. Receiving less than three hundred dollars annually 
for his labors, and supporting a large family in a land where meat 
was at first a dollar per pound, he has gone faithfully on in his 
work for thirty-two years. He has organized a number of congre- 
gations and received many converts into the church. Much of his 
time has been spent ' ' on the circuit ' ' among the miners. Through 
all these years he has faithfully kept a diary. He has preached on 
the streets, in drinking saloons, in dance-houses, in gambling dens, 



352 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iv, 

in hotel dining-rooms, and in other strange places. Some idea of 
the character of communities in which he has held meetings may- 
be gathered from the names of the towns mentioned in his diary. 
Samples of these are Humbug, Red Dog, You Bet, Poker Flat, and 
Gouge Bye. 

Although Mr. Dooley is now old, and of course has accumu- 
lated no worldly wealth, he says he expects to pursue the same 
calling till the Master takes him home. He says he has no regrets 
over his long years of privation, but would bear it all over again 
if he had to start at the beginning with a full knowledge of all 
the hardships. Regrets ? ah no ! Let those have regrets who have 
been false to their Lord and their high calling. 

A description of a California meeting held by the Rev. E. C. 
Latta, another faithful Cumberland Presbyterian pioneer on the 
Pacific coast, will give the reader an idea of the difficulties under 
which the first preachers in that country sometimes labored. Latta 
was earning his bread by hunting. A hotel at which he boarded 
bought his venison. He got permission from Jim, the hotel 
keeper, to have preaching in the bar-room. When Sabbath came 
the only two women in all the country came to the meeting. Gam- 
blers, too, were there, busy at their cards. Latta interrupted their 
games, saying, " Boys, it's my put in now. Jim says I may preach 
in this room. Just mark your place and wait till I preach." 
And then, without preliminaries, he began his sermon. When the 
sermon was over the gamblers returned to their cards. 

It was difficult to determine what synod had jurisdiction in Cal- 
ifornia. The Cumberland Presbyterian preachers in this State 
wanted to form a presbytery, but no order had been passed author- 
izing such an organization. In this emergency they resolved to 
organize without any formal order, and to ask the General Assem- 
bly to recognize the new presbytery and attach it to some synod. 
In the house of J. E. Braly, on the 4th of April, 1851, Cornelius 
Yager, W. Gallimore, James M. Small, and John E. Braly, all 
ordained ministers, constituted the California Presbytery. The 
next General Assembly approved their action, and attached the 
presbytery to the Missouri Synod, whose jurisdiction extended also 
to Oregon. 



Chapter XXXIII.] OREGON AND CALIFORNIA. 353 

So long as the great mass of the population had less local per- 
manency than a great army in the midst of war, church organiza- 
tions were also without permanence. In traveling over this State 
one may hear the history of such mushroom churches in almost 
all the counties; and yet who shall dare say that the results were 
not permanent? "By Yuba's red waters" the grave of the miner 
who died three thousand miles from his mother's fireside is all 
unmarked and unknown; but amid the blessed spirits of light and 
glory who gather along the banks of the river of life, the immortal 
soul saved in the mushroom church now reigns in deathless glory. 
Not lost were those transient labors among those transient peoples. 

One of the pioneer churches which did not melt away like 
morning mists was the Mountain View church, in Santa Clara 
County. It was organized in 1853 by the Rev. J. E. Braly. Mr. 
Braly long ministered to that flock. 

In the very beginning of our denominational work in this 
State the Rev. J. M. Small planted a church and built a house of 
worship in Napa City. In the neighborhood of one of Mr. Small's 
congregations, in 1852, some young unmarried men sustained a 
camp-meeting. The same year Mr. Small and others held a meet- 
ing in Sonoma, and secured money to build a house of worship. 

The Pacific Presbytery was organized in 1854, in the house of 
the Rev. J. M. Cameron. This presbytery established an academy 
at Sonoma, which in i860 was turned over to the synod and called 
Cumberland College. It had a short but useful career. It was the 
first Cumberland Presbyterian school in California. There was 
wrangling over the location, and this, according to Mr. Dooley, was 
ultimately the cause of its death. Another, or at least an auxiliary 
cause can be found in the flitting away of all the first population 
of Sonoma. German wine growers now own the principal part of 
the beautiful country around the old college buildings. That 
rivalry and divided counsels injured not only Cumberland College 
at Sonoma, but other church work in California, is however a pain- 
ful fact. The history of these differences and disputes would make 
a long chapter, but it would be useless to record it here. 

The Board of Missions was instructed by the General Assembly 
( x ^55) to sen< i a man to California before opening any other new 
23 



354 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iv. 

mission. For years the board reported that all efforts to secure a 
man for that field had failed. Finally, in 1859, the Rev. W. N. 
Cunningham was sent to Stockton, California. Nothing more was 
done, however, than to pay the missionary's way to his field of 
labor, the board seeming to have the impression that he could live 
on what our people in Stockton could pay him. On his arrival he 
found in that city a few members of our church, but no organized 
congregation. He received such small compensation for his labors 
that he suffered for the actual necessities of life. He struggled 
alone and in destitution till he secured money to build a church, 
but was driven at last by sheer starvation to seek other work. 

He next took charge of Sonoma College. This institution was 
overwhelmed in debts when he entered upon its management. He 
labored till these debts were paid off. He raised twelve thousand 
dollars to build a new college edifice, remaining twelve years in all 
at Sonoma. He has since combined some secular business for the 
support of his family with his work of preaching. This he did 
not do till he had been driven to it by the most pressing necessity. 
In this combined work he has built up and helped to build up sev- 
eral churches. Mr. Cunningham has suffered long from hope 
deferred. The church did just nothing to help the struggling few 
who went to California to preach the gospel. Had even one mis- 
sionary been sustained in that field the case would not be so bad ; 
but while other churches were paying salaries and building houses 
of worship in California, the pioneer preachers of the Cumberland 
Presbyterian church had to earn their own bread and preach with- 
out pay. 

Speaking of the paper started by Rev. T. M. Johnston in i860, 
and of the college at Sonoma, the Rev. D. E. Bushnell, D. D. , says 
in a published article: 

Both of these enterprises have been connected with nearly all of 
our subsequent history, though both have ceased to exist in fact though 
not in influence. When the full history of the Cumberland Presbyte- 
rian church on the Pacific slope shall have been written, there will be 
found two enterprises inseparably connected with its record, and the 
forces that have contributed toward the results already achieved, viz.: 
Cumberland College and the Pacific Observer. And indissolubly con- 
nected with these invaluable agencies for Christ and his cause are the 



Chapter XXXIII.] OREGON AND CALIFORNIA. 355 

names of the sainted Johnston, the founder and for ten years the pro- 
prietor and editor of our church journal, who has gone to reap the 
reward which was wholly denied him in this life, and the indefatigable 
and heroic Cunningham, whose indomitable will and lofty courage bore 
up the cherished college enterprise when the hearts of others failed 
them. . . . Working in the same general direction, but resulting from 
an unfortunate and ever-to-be-regretted division and diversion of the 
energies of our little band of builders in the spiritual wilderness, so sadly 
common in such cases, were the Union Academy at Alamo, and the 
San Joaquin College near Stockton. After short careers of struggle, 
though at times well manned and liberally patronized, and accomplish- 
ing no little good for the communities in which they were located, these 
institutions lost all their property by accidental fires, and having no 
endowment, ceased. No well-defined effort has since been made to 
establish a church school in the name of the Cumberland Presbyterians 
of California. 

What a pity that our people could not concentrate their college 
work even in that feeble frontier! They tried to have three col- 
leges, and ended in having none at all. 

The Rev. T. M. Johnston was an earnest preacher, a sound the- 
ologian, a safe counselor, and an indefatigable worker. When 
others wrangled, he wept. When others sought self, he toiled for 
Jesus. When it was attempted to involve him in these unfortu- 
nate disputes, he removed to another presbytery. He was a peace- 
maker, ready to bind up the wounds of those that had been 
wronged or injured, ready to pray with them and remind them of 
what Jesus suffered while achieving the world's redemption. 

The fascinating opportunities to acquire wealth both in farming 
and in mining were a snare in which many a preacher became 
involved. Many of these opportunities bore a striking resemblance 
to gambling. One year a single crop would yield net profits suffi- 
cient to buy a ranch. Another year, in some parts of the State, 
the crop would not repay what the seed cost. There were many 
ministerial wrecks, caused in most cases by an undue haste to be 
rich. 

The difficulties in the way of faithful Cumberland Presbyte- 
rian evangelists in this State were at first appalling. Besides the 
transient nature of the population, the mixture of nationalities 
and creeds was a serious obstacle. Educated infidels abounded. 



356 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iv. 

As late as 1877 infidel lecturers were ready to confront the earnest 
advocates of the gospel in nearly all the California towns. But 
above all else, the mad rush for wealth was and is the thing most 
unfriendly to the development of spiritual life. Steady honest toil 
is mocked at by men who ride horseback eighty miles a day, who 
feed three hundred hands all through harvest, who talk only about 
hundreds of thousands when speaking of their future expectations. 

But there are for Cumberland Presbyterians advantages of no 
mean character in that field. Of all the States, California is the 
most thoroughly national. It is neither Northern nor Southern; 
or rather it is both. So, too, is our church, and so was it even 
while the war was at its worst. California is constantly receiving 
emigration from our churches. Some of our best men go there. 
With a delightful climate, a wonderful soil, an invigorating atmos- 
phere, and a world of natural wonders; with a grand system of 
free schools, and throngs of the world's ablest scholars and think- 
ers constantly pouring in among its motley society — it is by all 
odds the most fascinating as well as the most difficult field our 
church has ever undertaken to cultivate. They do nothing by 
halves in California — at least not in the financial world. Small, 
slow-going enterprises are not likely to live in that country. Other 
churches send large sums of money and strong missionaries; Cum- 
berland Presbyterians send one man at a time for a whole State, 
and have but recently done that. 

Our people have now in that State three presbyteries. The 
director}' for 1886 shows that the California Presbytery has fourteen 
ordained preachers, three licentiates, and one candidate. ( The Sac- 
ramento Presbytery has seven ordained ministers, two licentiates, 
and no candidate. The Tulare Presbytery has twelve ordained 
ministers, one licentiate, and one candidate. A home supply of 
preachers is one of the great wants of our church in California 
and everywhere. 

Some of the same men who planted the Cumberland Presbyte- 
rian church in California also organized a few churches in Idaho, 
but our people never had strength enough in that Territory to call 
for any separate history. 



Chapter XXXIV.] SmAU, BEGINNINGS. 357 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 



SUNDRY SMALL BEGINNINGS — NORTH CAROLINA, 
WEST VIRGINIA, GEORGIA, KANSAS. 

All the lessons He shall send 

Are the sweetest; 
And his training, in the end, 

Is completest. 

— F. R. H. 

THE history of the Cumberland Presbyterian church in North 
Carolina is soon written. Before 1842, under church direc- 
tion, missionary tours were made through this State by Reuben 
Burrow and Robert Donnell. They held meetings for the revival 
party of the Presbyterian church. They had gracious revivals, but 
they uniformly declined to organize churches. At a later day our 
church in East Tennessee began to extend a little into North Car- 
olina, and a few zealous men thought the way was open to push 
the work far into that State. Young men pressed beyond the bor- 
ders, organized some feeble churches, and published appeals for 
help; but the church did not respond, and these little picket sta- 
tions were abandoned. 

Cumberland Presbyterians have penetrated into West Virginia 
through the natural expansion of the church in western Pennsyl- 
vania, and mainly under the ministry of Pennsylvania pastors liv- 
ing near enough to give a part of their time to the work beyond 
the State line. One congregation in West Virginia has considera- 
ble strength, but our people have no presbytery in that State, and 
never had any missionary in that field. 

It was by the natural expansion of the forces of the church that 
Cumberland Presbyterians extended their boundaries into Georgia. 
In East Tennessee and in Alabama, all along the Georgia border, 
there are congregations of our people. Members of these churches 
were constantly moving to Georgia, and writing back to their pas- 



358 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iv. 

tors to come and preach for them. Prominent among the minis- 
ters who responded to this call was the Rev. A. Templeton, then 
of Chattanooga, Tennessee. Finally one of our preachers settled 
in Georgia. This was the Rev. Z. M. McGhee. The war made 
Georgia the temporary home of many a Cumberland Presbyterian 
minister, the Rev. A. Templeton among the rest. 

An anecdote of Templeton taken from the papers is here con- 
densed. He was preaching at a Georgia meeting-house at a time 
when either blue coats or gray might be expected at church. Sure 
enough at one meeting the gray coats were there. The services 
began, and were progressing quietly, but with deep interest, when 
up rode a company of blue coats. Mr. Templeton turned to the 
Southern soldiers and said: "Keep your seats. If you really want 
to worship God, he will not allow you to be hurt. " They remained 
in their seats. The Federal soldiers then entered. Mr. Templeton 
said to them: "Please be seated, gentlemen, and let us all worship 
God a few moments together. ' ' They did as he requested. In a 
few moments the whole house was in tears. The petty contests of 
this little life were all forgotten. Eternal things pressed every 
heart. There were that day souls born of God. When the bene- 
diction was pronounced, each company of soldiers followed its own 
leader and went quietly away without any fighting. 

Cumberland Presbyterians have in Georgia one little presbytery 
with nine ministers, four licentiates, and two candidates. We have 
no missionary in this field, though precious interests are at stake 
there. At Rome there are several valuable members, but they 
have no house of worship and no minister. In Atlanta our people 
once had a mission, but it was allowed to die, although the influx 
of members from Alabama and Tennessee might in a few years 
have made it self-sustaining. 

Kansas was settled amid scenes of blood, not blood shed by 
Indians, but brothers butchering brothers. There were Cumber- 
land Presbyterians in both the angry parties which struggled for 
supremacy in that State. The repeal of "the Missouri compro- 
mise " and the law leaving the first settlers to decide for themselves 
whether Kansas should be a free or a slave State opened the gates 
of civil war. No full history of that bloody struggle has ever been 



Chapter XXXIV.] KANSAS. 359 

written. It was crowded back into forgetfulness by the greater 
contest which so soon followed. Nevertheless it was really a war, 
with armies, battles, and campaigns — war to the knife between two 
parties coming to live in the same Territory. 

Kansas was opened to white settlers late in 1854, under an act 
that led slave and free States alike to send armed emigrants thither, 
each - aiming to keep out the other party by force. The rush of 
emigrants was stimulated by the angry political strife of the day. 
To gain in Congress the votes of a new State was the aim of each 
party; to use force in keeping out emigrants from States unfavor- 
able to the schemes of its partisans was the policy of each. 

A peaceably disposed Cumberland Presbyterian emigrant, while 
on his way to Kansas in 1854 to preach Jesus to the settlers, wrote 
a letter which was published in the church paper. He thus 
describes the scene at the ferry across the Missouri River at Weston, 
Missouri: 

The crowd of passengers wishing to cross had become so great that 
we were somewhat doubtful of the safety of embarking on so crazy a 
craft with so large a number of passengers. The ferryman assured us, 
however, that there was no danger, and that if we waited until the next 
trip we would only find matters worse, as the crowd would probably 
be greater than it now was. We, therefore, ventured on his boat, but 
such cramming and jamming of buggies, wagons, horses, mules, and 
footmen on a little crazy steam ferry-boat we have never seen, and do 
not care to see again soon. We took the pains to count them and found 
that there were about eighty persons on board, most of whom were 
going over into the new Territory to stake out their claims and take 
possession of the soil. They were generally equipped according to 
border life, having a set of camping furniture, besides axes, hatchets, 
butcher and Bowie-knives, guns, pistols, and other weapons of the 
chase and of warfare, offensive and defensive. We began to feel as if 
we had got into the wrong crowd, being entirely unarmed, whilst every 
one about us seemed to be armed to the teeth. A more daring, reso- 
lute, reckless set of men we have scarcely ever looked upon. Each 
man seemed to say by his airs and gait, "I am able, single-handed and 
alone, to vindicate my rights against all intruders." Still we found 
that beneath this rough and forbidding exterior there was generally a 
current of warm and genial feeling. 

The river once passed, they branched off in every direction, each 
in search of some spot on which to locate his claim. As we rode off 



360 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iv. 

we saw on the other bank another company equally large awaiting the 
return of the boat. The ferryman assured us that he had been kept 
busily engaged from morning till night for the last two or three weeks 
in ferrying immigrants. Most of those whom we saw were from 
upper Missouri, but they were already beginning to arrive in consider- 
able numbers from all the Western States, though but a single month 
had elapsed since the opening of the country. 

Kansas did not become a State of the Union till 1861, but sol- 
diers of the Cross were as ready to rush thither in the beginning 
as the soldiers of political parties. Early in 1855, under the min- 
istry of the Rev. C. B. Hodges, the Round Prairie church was 
formed. This, it is claimed, was the first Cumberland Presbyte- 
rian congregation organized on Kansas soil. According to an 
order of Missouri Synod, Kansas Presbytery was organized Novem- 
ber 16, 1855. z The original members were W. W. Bell, Benjamin 
McCrary, C. B. Hodges, A. A. Moore, Thomas Allen, and O. Guth- 
rie. The two last named were not present at the organization. 
The presbytery met in a school-house in Leavenworth County, 
near the dwelling of the Rev. B. 'McCrary. A. A. Moore was 
moderator. There were some licentiates and candidates from the 
first, and one of the licentiates, A. P. Searcy, was ordered to pre- 
pare for ordination at the next meeting. 

This presbytery had all of Kansas for its field, though a large 
portion of the territory was without a single inhabitant. All of 
its ministers lived north of Kansas River, while settlements 
abounded south of the river, and earnest appeals came up from 
that region begging for the bread of life. The presbytery took 
the very best steps in its power toward responding to these appeals, 
urging all the churches and every member to contribute money to 
secure preachers. At its very first meeting it passed strong resolu- 
tions against whisky. Of the original members two still live, 
Moore and Hodges. 

Leavenworth Presbytery was next organized, and then followed 
two others. The territory assigned to these new presbyteries was 
all carved out of the field first assigned to Kansas Presbytery. The 

1 Valuable extracts from the Minutes and other items were furnished me by the 
stated clerk, the Rev. William Spencer. 



Chapter XXXIV.] KANSAS. 361 

original Kansas Presbytery now has twenty-five congregations and 
nine hundred and eighteen communicants. There is still great 
need of more preachers in that country. There are Cumberland 
Presbyterian families scattered over all the State. The Rev. W. 
Spencer and the Rev. R. H. Shearer are the only Cumberland Pres- 
byterian ministers in Kansas who are natives of that State. 

In 1857 the Missionary Board at Lebanon, Tennessee, commis- 
sioned the Rev. A. A. Moore to travel as missionary in Kansas. 
He spent several years in this work and had good success. In 
1859 the board sent the Rev. J. B. Green (now the Rev. Dr. Green, 
of Nebraska) to travel as missionary in the country around Fort 
Leavenworth. He had some very fruitful revivals and did valuable 
service. 

The Directory, 1886, shows that Kansas Presbytery has thirteen 
ministers, two licentiates, and one candidate; Leavenworth Pres- 
bytery five, and Republican Valley Presbytery eight ministers; 
and Wichita Presbytery, twelve ministers and one candidate. The 
members of the church in Kansas should ask the Lord to call their 
own sons to preach the gospel. 



362 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iv. 



CHAPTER XXXV 



MISCELLANEOUS. 

Hush, my troubled heart be still, 
God is faithful come what will. 

— Anna Shipton. 

THERE has always been a party in the Cumberland Presbyte- 
rian church opposed to concentration, and another party 
which has believed it necessary to combine the forces of the church 
in some of the greater enterprises, especially in our denominational 
schools. Milton Bird and F. R. Cossitt, as editors respectively of 
the two leading church papers, took opposite sides of this ques- 
tion. The policy advocated by Dr. Cossitt was concentration on 
one or two colleges, one or two papers, and one theological school. 
Though Robert Donnell and many other thoughtful men gave their 
voices on this side of the question, their views did not prevail. 
The church had to learn by experience, and this period, from 1842 
to i860, was full of lessons on this subject. 

It was no uncommon thing for a single presbytery to resolve to 
have an endowed college of its own. Thus, Tennessee Presbytery, 
in 1850, resolved to establish and endow a college. Purdy College 
had a still smaller ecclesiastical backing. Such efforts showed 
clearly that many of our people had no correct idea of what con- 
stitutes a college. We had at one time in this period fifteen char- 
tered colleges for young men, besides several similar institutions 
for young ladies. Fifteen does not exhaust the list for the whole 
period, but this is the largest number that simultaneously existed. 
Some of the schools did not live five years. 

But, in the course of time, these evils began to correct them- 
selves. Young men who went from these mushroom colleges to 
real ones had their eyes opened. The little school which suddenly 
sprung up as a rival of an older institution and called itself a col- 
lege, soon found some other little college springing up in its field, 



Chapter XXXV.] MISCELLANEOUS. 363 

rivaling it, until, sooner or later, came the death agonies of both. 
Of the fifteen Cumberland Presbyterian colleges which, in 1859, 
had a name to live, only three now survive. Each of these three 
had secured some little endowment, though by no means enough. 

For more than twenty years the General Assembly tried to 
obtain harmonious reports from the presbyteries in reference to a 
theological school. Some of the presbyteries favored presbyterial, 
and some synodical, and some General Assembly schools. There 
was no harmony, and the Assembly waited, declaring meantime its 
opinion that it would be wisest to establish one school for the 
whole church. At different times this question was sent down to 
the presbyteries; but while the responses showed a steady increase 
in the number of voices in favor of giving the exclusive control of 
such schools to the General Assembly, there was still too much 
conflict to allow that body to establish such an institution. 

The last reference of this question to the presbyteries was made 
in 1848, and when the response came back in 1849 with something 
like unanimity in favor of a theological school under the control 
of the General Assembly, there was great rejoicing. Steps were 
taken at once toward the establishment of such a school. At first 
the rival claims of two colleges made the Assembly agree that 
there should be two schools; but this matter was soon adjusted, 
and one school for the whole church, to be located at Lebanon, 
Tennessee, was undertaken. 

There were some delays in getting this school into successful 
operation. Meantime the Assembly of 1852 was thrown into con- 
fusion by the action of Bethel College, in West Tennessee. Before 
the charter of this college was a year old it resolved to establish a 
theological school and send out agents for its endowment, appeal- 
ing to the whole church for contributions. This had the appear- 
ance of an attempt to head off the General Assembly. West Ten- 
nessee Synod, under whose control Bethel College held its charter, 
had many members who opposed this measure. So, too, had even 
the Board of Trust and Faculty of Bethel College. There were, 
however, three controlling spirits who advanced the scheme and 
carried it through the synod. These were Reuben Burrow, J. N. 
Roach, and C. J. Bradley. 



3^4 



Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iv. 



Three years prior to this action Mr. Roach had been in charge of 
a flourishing school for young ladies at Lebanon, Tennessee. When 
the school was in its greatest prosperity grave charges were made 
against Mr. Roach, of which he was afterward fully acquitted; but 
although he was doubtless innocent of the things charged against 
him, yet the tide of public prejudice ran high enough to break up 
his school. Deeply hurt, he left Lebanon and went immediately 
to West Tennessee and set to work to establish a college there. As 
West Tennessee lay between Lebanon and the field from which the 
university at Lebanon drew its principal patronage, many questioned 
the wisdom of this course. Mr. Roach, though not a thorough 
scholar, was a man of splendid natural abilities, and he had an 
amazing capacity for hard work. He had, too, a commanding 
influence over the common people, and his plan for the establish- 
ment of a college was carried through the West Tennessee Synod 
mainly by his personal influence. He next planned a theological 
department, naming Dr. Burrow and the Rev. C. J. Bradley as 
prospective professors. 

West Tennessee Synod was then in a sharp controversy with 
Lebanon men about the revision of the Confession of Faith. Dr. 
Burrow was not only a leader in advocating revision, but, on va- 
rious points, he held doctrines which were not in strict harmony 
with the creed of the church, and he seemed to feel under solemn 
obligations to propagate his peculiar views. A theological school 
would enable him more effectually to do this, therefore Mr. . Roach 
easily won him to his plans. Burrow's voice carried the' measure 
through the synod. 

When the General Assembly of 1852 met severe resolutions of 
condemnation against this project of Bethel College were offered, 
and after hot discussion were in a fair way to pass, when the Rev. 
C. J. Bradley rose in his place and warned the Assembly that the 
passage of these resolutions would be the signal for the secession 
of West Tennessee Synod. That was then the largest synod in the 
church. Mr. Bradley's announcement checked proceedings. The 
Assembly adopted pacific measures, simply entreating the lower 
judicatures to co-operate with the Assembly's school, and left 
Bethel College to pursue its course. For many years Dr. Burrow's 



Chapter XXXV.] MISCELLANEOUS. 365 

theological pupils adopted the Confession of Faith only in part, 
openly stating their partial adoption of the book at their ordina- 
tion. 

This case suggests a very different matter. One of the living 
questions now pressing on all the denominations is how to protect 
their theological schools from teachers who change their views 
after their appointment to professorships. 

In the chapter on missions it was seen that it was with difficulty 
that co-operation with a general board was secured. There were 
fears by some that the general board would become a pope. But 
the danger in the Cumberland Presbyterian church has never been 
in the direction of the pope, but in the other direction. Independ- 
ence, which regards neither session, presbytery, assembly, nor the 
general welfare, has more frequently paralyzed our enterprises. 
There is a medium between the centralization which makes a pope 
and the private independence which makes anarchy. God in his 
providence is slowly leading the church to this medium ground. 

One of the measures often proposed in the General Assembly 
in this period was the consolidation of the church papers. There 
were at one time seven of these weeklies. It cost a preacher not 
less than fourteen dollars to secure the news from all parts of the 
field, while a communication intended for the whole church had to 
be sent to seven editors. Each of the seven had a circulation 
mainly local, and the support of each was too meager to command 
first-class facilities. To have one paper owned by the church, or the 
presbyteries, was one of the plans proposed. It is a curious fact 
that the New York Observer took a special interest on the negative 
side of this discussion. Its objection was that the scheme put too 
much power into the hands of one editor. 

A sample of the arguments used by those who favored this plan 
is found in the following extract from a communication published 
in the Watchman and Evangelist: 

A change has come over me in regard to the church paper which 
has been so much talked of. The arguments in favor of one paper 
for the whole church preponderate in my judgment. A like change is 
discoverable in those who, in this region, take any of our papers. 

"In union there is strength," is an indisputable maxim. Had the 



3 66 



Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iv. 



church adhered to this in all its important undertakings, our spiritual 
momentum would have been greater than it now is. Had no more lit- 
erary institutions been planted than the pecuniary ability of the church 
could have amply furnished and rendered potent, our educational facili- 
ties would have been far in advance of what they now are. Mere local 
interests have operated against the general good, and originated, here and 
there, schools of various grades until they have become so numerous as 
to be burdensome and meagerly supported. A similar error has been 
committed in our publishing enterprises. Local interests have been re- 
garded as the sine qua non, until blindness to the general well-being of 
the whole body has come over our eyes. 

One presbytery or synod conceives it to be important that a paper 
should be published within its bounds to advocate the cause in that 
quarter. Another, in another portion of the body, is actuated by a simi- 
lar reason, and so on until the patronage of the church is cut up into 
small sectional divisions, and none of the papers sufficiently well sup- 
ported to give us even one of the right character. By this division of 
our strength, our name and influence evidently suffer. The Cumber- 
land Presbyterian church has had experience of this kind to its sorrow. 
Why should we support this evil policy in regard to an enterprise which 
affects so directly the vital interests of the whole church? Or will we 
continue to disregard those lessons of wisdom to be learned from our 
past history? 

Another evil growing out of the strenuous advocacy of these local 
publishing interests is strife. An attempt to originate a paper and sup- 
port it in a body already too feeble to maintain well what it has, curtails 
the patronage of those of prior existence. But each watches its own 
interests with a jealous eye, and upon the first appearance of infringe- 
ment upon its dominions takes up the sword, and the result not unfre- 
quently is the disturbance of the peace of the church by a newspaper 
war. Has there not been sad experience in this very thing? 

This writer also pressed two other arguments: the cost to one per- 
son who desired to take all the papers and secure the news from the 
whole church, and the fact that all seven of the weeklies copied 
from one another, so that such a subscriber got much of the same 
matter in all of the seven papers. . 

On the negative I find all the arguments are capable of reduction 
to these: It was claimed that local interests in remote parts of the 
church would suffer under the one paper plan, and that more peo- 
ple can be induced to take a paper published in their own locality 
than one from a distant part of the church. 



Chapter XXXV.] MISCELLANEOUS. 367 

One writer pressed another and a strong argument in these 
words: 

Should controversy arise on important subjects, under the trammels 
of the "one paper" system the editorial authority would have the right 
to sit in judgment upon the propriety of admitting or not admitting 
articles on either side in controversy, which might unknowingly be pro- 
ductive of much ill-feeling, and do great injury to certain brethren and 
some portion of the church. Should the editorial authority come to the 
conclusion, as has once occurred, that nothing should be published until 
the judicature had taken action, then the whole church must abide the 
decisions for the time, or appear in the unenviable attitude of scattering 
church dissensions in secular newspapers. 

The one paper scheme failed, but the Assembly appealed to the 
editors to combine and reduce the number of papers. In this way, 
and still more by the failure of several of the weaker publications, 
the number was considerably diminished. There was a deeper les- 
son from financial failure than from the voice of the Assembly. 

The books published by Cumberland Presbyterians in this 
period were neither many nor large. It was a time of too great 
activity in planting churches and inaugurating new enterprises to 
allow much book making. One of the most valuable books ever 
published on the subject of training children was Dr. Lindley's 
Infant Philosophy. The stereotype plates for this book were lost 
in 1858, and it has never been republished. The copyright was 
bought by the Cumberland Presbyterian Board of Publication at 
Louisville in 1853. Dr. E. B. Crisman's little volume, "The Ori- 
gin and Doctrines of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, ' ' met a 
demand which was keenly felt prior to that time. The Rev. John 
L. Dillard published a little book in reply to Lewis A. Lowry, 
who left the Cumberland Presbyterian church and bitterly attacked 
it in a volume which was brought out by the Presbyterian Pub- 
lishing House. It was the general opinion among our people 
that Dillard gave the young man a well-deserved castigation. Va- 
rious newspapers of other churches expressed the same opinion. 
Mr. Lowry' s book was in the form of letters addressed to his fa- 
ther, the Rev. David Lowry. The latter, it is said, never read a 
line of these letters. 

One of the most scholarly books of this period was, ' l The Life 



3 68 



Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period i v. 



and Times of Ewing," by Dr. Cossitt. The very nature of the 
subject made the book necessarily controversial. At the close of 
the book is a severe but able review of Davidson's History of the 
Presbyterian Church in Kentucky. But most of our people have 
grown tired of fighting over the old battles with the Presbyterian 
church, and such is their lack of interest in this subject that they 
will not buy books devoted to that old contest. The writer of these 
pages has been entreated by many of the purest and best men in 
the Cumberland Presbyterian church to pass over all that old bit- 
terness just as lightly as the truth of history will permit. This 
he has done. 1 

President Anderson's Life of George Donnell was published in 
this period, and is generally regarded as the best biographical book 
in our church. It would be hard to find a better biography in any 
church. 

Dr. Beard began the publication of his great work on systematic 
theology in this period. These lectures present the genuine origi- 
nal Cumberland Presbyterian system of doctrine. There is more 
Calvinism in the book than some of our modern theologians like, 
but not more than the whole of the first generation of our minis- 
ters preached. This book will stand as a landmark from which we 
can measure from age to age any drifting away of our theology 
from orthodoxy. 

While Dr. Beard was never brilliant, and never relied on any 
extemporaneous afflatus, his profound and patient research always 
went to the bottom of any subject which he investigated, and then 
swept around all the adjacent field before he attempted to write his 
lecture. Loyalty to Scripture, without a particle of ambition for 
originality, marked all his work. From first to last there is in his 
book no harsh word about other theological systems or teachers. 
He labored simply, by prayer and severe study, to give God's sys- 
tem as it is found in the Bible. With a profound knowledge of the 
original Scripture, with a world-wide acquaintance with theolog- 
ical writers, he devoted the best years of his noble life to the prep- 
aration of his lectures. If his church ever fails to appreciate this 

1 It is necessary to know something of the number of false charges made against 
our people before the extent of my forbearance in this matter can be appreciated. 




Rev. R. 0. Watk ins. 





Rev. Reuben Burrow.D.D. 



Rev. J. B. Logan, D.D. 



Chapter XXXV.] MISCELLANEOUS. 369 

book, so much the worse for the church. There are so many orig- 
inal thinkers in modern times that it is hard to find among them 
one who is willing to draw all his theology from God's own revela- 
tion. Human philosophy must shape and sqv^re and trim and 
smooth the Scripture system, eliminating here, supplementing 
there, until with great truth the original thinker can at last say, 
This is my system. 

About twenty other books were brought out by Cumberland 
Presbyterians in this period, but none of them call for any special 
notice in this history. There was not a single devotional book 
published by any of our people, nor has there been to this day any 
great amount of devotional literature among our publications. 
Controversial writings, usque ad nauseam, we have had, but very 
few works which would ever lead a soul to Christ. The second 
period in the history of the church presented better things in this 
respect than the fourth. 

In this period there were long controversies on doctrinal ques- 
tions. One of these questions was whether or not faith should ever 
be called the gift of God. On both sides in this controversy there 
seemed to be fears that the other party held doctrines which it not 
only did not avow but indignantly disclaimed. A patient study 
of all the long controversy has satisfied the writer that there was 
no difference at all between the parties about the real nature of 
faith. Both said that the sinner could not believe unto salvation 
without the Holy Spirit's aid, and that the act of believing was the 
act of the sinner thus aided, and not the act of the Holy Spirit. 
The disputants agreed, too, as to the manner in which the Holy 
Spirit aids the sinner — that he sheds light on the way of salvation, 
on the wonderful love and the gracious words of Christ to all who 
seek him, until the heart is won to trust him. The real question 
was whether this assistance thus given by the Spirit justifies us in 
calling faith a grace — a gift of God. One party charged the other 
with holding that faith is created in the sinner's heart by a divine 
act. The other party retorted : ' ' You hold to an unaided human 
faith, merely historical." Neither charge was just. 

There was also a long controversy about sanctification. One 
party, led by Dr. Reuben Burrow, advocated the Zinzendorfian 
24 



37° Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iv. 

view of sanctification. The other party, and by far the larger one, 
held to the doctrine of the Confession, which is the same as the 
doctrine of the Westminster Confession. There were also sharp 
controversies between Dr. Burrow and his brethren generally on 
various doctrines wherein Burrow differed from the Confession of 
Faith. Infant justification was prominent among these subjects 
of controversy. Dr. Burrow held that infants are born in a jus- 
tified state. 

There were so many points in which Burrow departed from the 
traditional teachings of the church, and he pressed his views so 
persistently in the church papers, that one presbytery finally took 
official action, warning its young preachers against these doctrines. 
This warning was published in the papers. Then came a sharp 
controversy about the rights of presbyteries. Burrow said that 
though he was not a member of this presbytery, nor amenable to 
it, yet it had assumed to try and condemn him. In answer to this 
it was said that the presbytery did not try men, but doctrines; that 
the Book of Discipline made it the duty of presbyteries to condemn 
erroneous doctrines which were injuring the peace of the church. 
Burrow's friends then pleaded his noble service as an evangelist on 
our frontiers as proof of his soundness in doctrine, and with that 
the controversy closed. 

Another controversy was about abolishing the synod. S. G. 
Burney, D.D., led the affirmative in this discussion. Many of the 
old men of the church took the other side. The synod was not 
abolished. A proposition to revise the Confession of Faith was 
also discussed. Some of the papers declined to publish any thing 
on this subject. Others opened their columns, but men hesitated 
to discuss general questions in local papers. 

The tone of church controversies has greatly improved since 
1842. The Rev. W. S. Langdon, while editor, announced this as his 
rule: "No writer shall publish in these columns any thing about 
his brethren which I would be unwilling to have him publish about 
me." 

In this fourth period camp-meetings in all the older portions of 
the church died a lingering death. Of the later meetings of this 
kind only a few were equal in results to those of earlier times. At 



Chapter XXXV.] MISCELLANEOUS. 371 

Bethel church, Carroll County, Tennessee, there were three camp- 
meetings between 1846 and 1850, all of them like the old gatherings 
of other days. John Barnett attended one of these meetings. Besides 
preaching with holy power, he went from camp to camp, and from 
person to person, preaching Christ in private interviews as well as 
from the pulpit. At one of these meetings two hundred mourners 
bowed simultaneously in the great congregation. The mighty 
power of God was present. 

An unusually large number of church trials occurred during 
this period. Some men of the highest standing were arraigned on 
the gravest charges before their presbyteries. The verdict in most 
cases, not all, was u not guilty," and after years approved these 
verdicts. 

A long and profitless controversy over the restoration of J. A. 
Dewoody to the ministry by one presbytery after he had been de- 
posed by another, though always decided against, this restoration 
kept finding new methods of getting before the General Assembly 
and annoying that body. 

There was a fierce controversy between Hopewell Presbytery and 
a Methodist presiding elder over the reception by the presbytery of 
a minister who had been deposed by the Methodists. The mem- 
bers of the presbytery claimed that they had evidence that it was 
personal spite in the elder which caused this man to be deposed. 
There have been sundry instances of preachers coming to the Cum- 
berland Presbyterian church from other denominations to escape 
some difficulty with their own churches, but no such accession to 
our ranks has ever proved valuable. 

There were long newspaper debates during this period between 
our people and the Baptists. These discussions were not always 
conducted in a Christian spirit, and were injurious to both churches. 
Dr. Burrow published a book on baptism full of hard sayings 
against the Baptists. This book was fiercely assailed by Dr. J. 
R. Graves, of the Baptist church. Then there were oral de- 
bates between him and Dr. Burrow, and between Burrow and the 
Rev. James Hurt. Bitter personal charges and a long and acrid 
newspaper controversy followed. All through West Tennessee 
Cumberland Presbyterians and Baptists became like Jews and 



372 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period -iv. 

Samaritans. The cause of the Master suffered in both churches. 
May no such unseemly strife ever occur again! 

There was also a protracted controversy on doctrines between 
Dr. Cossitt and the Presbyterians. It was conducted with ability 
and in a Christian spirit on both sides, but there is no proof that 
the doctrinal views of any one were changed by this discussion. 
However, one good thing at least came of it. People saw that two 
strong men could differ and discuss their differences without trans- 
gressing the rules of Christian courtesy, or departing from the spirit 
of the Master. Such a lesson was needed. . 



Chapter XXXVI.] SKETCHES AND INCIDENTS. 373 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 



SKETCHES AND INCIDENTS. 

All things are His, and all obey 

His wonder working will; 
E'en common things have life and speech, 

And His command fulfill. 

— Anna Shi f ton. 

IN 1843 Robert Domiell determined to establish a church in 
Memphis, Tennessee, and for that purpose began a series of 
meetings in that place. A great revival followed. Many promi- 
nent citizens were converted, and Donnell organized a church. 
This church promptly called him as its pastor, but he declined. He 
however remained until he secured money enough to build a house 
of worship. He wrote the subscription and made the canvass 
himself. It is said that very few persons refused to subscribe. This 
house stood till about i860, when the large building now in use by 
that congregation was erected. 

Matthew H. Bone and Hugh B. Hill were boys together. Their 
associations were of the most intimate character. They were con- 
verted about the same time. One day Hill said to his dear young 
friend: "If you will never tell any one I will communicate to you 
a secret." Bone promised not to betray this confidence, where- 
upon Hill said: "I believe God is calling me to preach the gospel." 
Bone replied: "I believe he is calling me to the same work." The 
two boys were alone together in the woods, and they wept and 
prayed together there. Months passed away, and Hill had another 
confidence to repose in his friend. It was that he had concluded 
that it was all a mistake about God calling him to preach. To his 
surprise he found his friend had also reached a similar conclusion. 
So they both agreed to abandon all thoughts of preaching and turn 
their attention to something else. It happened that they went to- 
gether soon afterward to a camp-meeting. The leading preachers 



374 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iv. 

of Kentucky were present. Barnett preached, Chapman preached, 
Delany preached. God's spirit was poured out. Again Hill sought 
his friend and told him that all his old impressions had come back 
stronger than ever. Bone made similar statements about his im- 
pressions. Before the meeting closed one of the ministers asked 
the two young men to go with him to the woods. It was the daily 
custom at the camp-meetings to go to the woods for secret prayer. 
The two young men were surprised on reaching the retreat in the 
grove to find all the preachers there together. It was a precon- 
certed arrangement. The old men wanted to talk to these two 
young men about preaching. The result was that Hill and Bone 
were advised to attend the next meeting of the presbytery and be- 
come candidates for the ministry. After that these two friends 
traveled together on the circuit. All their lives they worked to- 
gether at camp-meetings. Once they went together on a voluntary 
mission to Ohio, and the origin of the Cumberland Presbyterian 
church at Lebanon, Ohio, is due to that mission. In Bone's man- 
uscript he says that Hill in his riper years bitterly regretted that 
the old men forced him away from school and put him on the cir- 
cuit before his education was completed. 

An aged minister, the Rev. Benjamin Watson, who began life 
as a Methodist, but joined the Cumberland Presbyterian church 
afterward, gives at the close of his manuscript autobiography some 
interesting reflections. He says his long experience has taught him 
that the church's best members and most of its converts come from 
the Sabbath-school; that giving to the poor is lending to the Lord, 
and that only out-and-out consecration to the ministry has any 
right to claim the gracious promises which God makes about the 
preacher's temporal necessities. He tried teaching and preaching, 
but could not claim these promises and did not realize their fulfill- 
ment. For sixteen years he tested the other plan. He cast him- 
self upon God to preach even if he starved. Then he did claim 
the promises and did realize their fulfillment. 

Mr. Watson's history is interesting in many particulars. His 
father bitterly opposed his entering the ministry, and to prevent 
his riding the circuit attempted to shoot his horse, but, just as he 
fired, the gun was thrown up and the ball passed over the animal. 



Chapter XXXVI.] SKETCHES AND INCIDENTS. 375 

Then the enraged father took his knife and cut his son's saddle, 
bridle, and saddle-bags to pieces. Not content with that, he gath- 
ered up all the young man's Sunday clothing, books and money, 
and burned them. Then he struck his son with a walking-stick, 
and seized his watch chain, and jerking the watch out of his pocket 
broke it against a post. The boy was then told to choose be- 
tween giving up circuit riding and leaving his home forever. Ben- 
jamin took his final choice then and there. He bade mother and 
sister good-bye, and went to a neighbor's house. Next morning 
a merchant called and invited him to go home with him. On his 
arrival he found a number of ladies assembled for the purpose of 
making him a suit of clothes. Bridle, saddle, clothing, and money 
were all furnished him, and his own horse was brought from his 
father's, and the young man went on his way preaching the gospel. 

The Rev. P. G. Rea, in his manuscript history of the New 
Lebanon . Presbytery of Missouri (organized 1832) gives some inter- 
esting facts. He says: "Since its organization to 1885 this pres- 
bytery has ordained thirty-two ministers, licensed forty-eight, and 
has had under its care eighty-six candidates. Eight thousand one 
hundred and eighty-eight accessions, and over eleven thousand con- 
versions have been reported. ' ' Some samples will show how the 
preachers of this presbytery were compensated for their services: 
"John Reed and W. B. Wear, as missionaries for six months, each 
received four dollars and twenty-eight cents, and A. McCorkle, 
twenty-three dollars and ninety-five cents. J. M. Foster, for six 
months, received thirty-three dollars and twelve cents, and F. E. 
Foster the same amount. P. G. Rea, for six months, received fifteen 
dollars and forty-three cents, and W. F. Eawrence, fifteen dollars 
and twelve cents. M. Neal, for one month, received two dollars 
and thirty-seven cents, and Moses Allen, for three months, twelve 
dollars and twelve cents." 

In 1853 this presbytery passed resolutions in favor of "the 
Maine law. ' ' In Mr. Rea's manuscript is a melancholy notice of the 
last days of the Rev. Daniel Buie. He became insane while presid- 
ing as moderator of the presbytery, and died in the Fulton asylum, 
1834. Mr. Rea corrects a few of R. C. Ewing's dates. 1 Rea's cor- 

1 Ewing's Memoirs. 



376 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period i v. 

rections have been followed in this work. Mr. Rea is now an aged 
man, and looks back upon a long life of usefulness as he lingers 
waiting the signal to call him home. His memory, however, is 
unimpaired, and it is remarkably accurate about dates. * 

From a manuscript autobiography of the Rev. James Johnson 
(who was born in 1803) we learn that after he began the ministry 
in Ocoee Presbytery, Tennessee, he attended a protracted meeting 
held in connection with the meeting of East Tennessee Synod. 
The leading preachers of the synod all seemed to fail in the pulpit. 
A Presbyterian minister said : ' ' You will have no revival so long 
as you rely on your big preachers. Pick out the least and hum- 
blest man you have and let him do the preaching, and let your big 
men go to praying." Johnson naively tells us that they selected 
him. He replied that he would preach if they would have Hiram 
Douglass follow with an exhortation. He said: u L,et Douglass 
follow a poor sermon, and he has never been known to fail." The 
arrangement was made. Johnson preached, Douglass exhorted, 
and when the call was made crowds pressed to the mourner's bench. 
A great revival with scores of conversions followed. Johnson's 
humorous estimate of Douglass's talent is correct. Douglass ex- 
celled in tact, in ability to meet emergencies, to lead forlorn hopes, 
and turn defeats into victories. 

Ten years ago there lived in the Choctaw Nation an aged Indian 
named Durant. He was an elder in the Cumberland Presbyterian 
church. He wrote for Dr. Crisman a sketch of his life, which con- 
tains some interesting facts. He says he was born in Mississippi, 
in 1798. In his childhood there were neither schools nor books, 
neither churches nor preaching anywhere in his country. He 
never heard of such things till he was fifteen years old, and when 
at last a missionary school was established near his home, he was 
afraid of it. He did not understand what kind of a thing it was, 
and the mere thought of going to it frightened him. He says his 
people wore no hats, and instead of shoes wore moccasins. Very 
little was said or thought about any Supreme Being, though they 
did believe in a Great Spirit. Finally, however, he heard the 
gospel in his own language and became a Christian. He claims 
Cyrus Kingsbury as his spiritual father. 



Chapter XXXVI.] SKETCHES AND INCIDENTS. 377 

In West Tennessee there was, in 1845, near the home of a pious 
Cumberland Presbyterian mother an extensive neighborhood in 
which there was neither church nor Sunday-school. This was a 
source of great grief to this dear lady. Finally she found an ear- 
nest Christian man, Wm. Moore, who was willing to join her in an 
effort to establish a Sunday-school in the neglected neighborhood. 
Engaging the little log school-house, they published their appoint- 
ment for a Sabbath-school. Neither of them had any knowledge 
of modern methods of Sunday-school work, but they both had a 
deep love for souls. The school at first was composed mostly of 
grown people, some of them gray headed. Their method was to 
read a chapter, talk about it a little while, then pray. After the 
first prayer came personal conversation with the unconverted about 
their souls, then another prayer. It was not long before a most 
gracious revival began in the log school-house, and it continued 
for months, until many of the married people, as well as a number 
of the young people, were counted among the converts. This in- 
cident, taken along with another now to be related, may serve to 
encourage some earnest worker in the Sabbath-school. The other 
instance was at Bowling Green, Kentucky. One of the teachers in 
the Cumberland Presbyterian Sabbath-school at that place went to 
her pastor and said, " I want to give up my class. " He asked her 
why, and she answered: "I am no scholar. I can't understand all 
these new methods. I can ' t keep up with all these learned teachers 
or with my class. Everybody has got so far ahead of me. I am not 
fit to teach." He asked her how many of her large class of boys 
were Christians when she took charge of it. She replied, * ' None 
of them ." " How many do you believe have been converted since 
you took charge of them? ' ' ' 'All but one. ' ' The pastor then 
asked her if she thought she had learning enough to pray earnestly 
for the conversion of that one. With tears she said, c ' Yes, with 
my whole heart. " He then said to her, "I would not give you for 
fifty learned teachers who never led a pupil to Jesus. ' ' 

The following incident is found in the manuscript of the Rev. 
M. H. Bone: The Missionary Board desired to secure the sendees 
of the Rev. F. G. Black, of Ohio, to take charge of a new mission 
in the city of Cincinnati; but the members of his congregation 



373 



Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period iv. 



were not willing to let him go, and he would not leave them with- 
out their full consent. The board employed Mr. Bone to visit 
Black's congregation with a view to persuading them to yield 
their interests to the demands of the general cause. He made the 
visit, and on Sabbath he delivered an address on the great claims 
of Christ's kingdom, and showed how we ought to yield our local 
interests to larger general interests. Seeing the whole congrega- 
tion in tears, he thought the time had come to have the question 
decided. Turning to the elders, he asked them if they would 
consent to give up their pastor. The elders asked: " What does 
Brother Black say? Does he want to go? " Mr. Black replied: "I 
believe it is my duty to go." Then Mr. Bone asked: "How many 
elders and members are there who are willing to let Mr. Black go 
where he feels that the Lord is calling him ? ' ' To this the only 
answer was increased weeping throughout the congregation. Still 
the agent of the board persevered in private till he accomplished 
his mission. Mr. Bone, when he was an old man, and long after 
Mr. Black had lost his wife and another member of his family by 
the cholera in Cincinnati, and after the Cincinnati mission had 
been for many years abandoned, put on record, concerning his visit 
to Mr. Black's church and his efforts to sever that holy pastoral 
relation, these words, ' ' It was not of God. ' ' 

The Rev. R. A. A. Moorman, of the Cumberland Presbyterian 
church, stammers badly; yet, strange to say, he has no impediment 
in his utterance while praying. In the beginning of his sermons 
this infirmity is often very embarrassing, but when he advances 
and becomes absorbed in his discourse, all traces of it vanish. 
Once at a large camp-meeting Mr. Moorman was to preach at 
eleven o'clock Sunday morning. He tried hard to begin his ser- 
mon, but his stammering was worse than usual. He sang a stanza, 
then tried again to preach, but he could not finish a single sen- 
tence. Falling upon his knees he poured forth a touching prayer 
for divine help. He asked the Lord that he might be rid of all 
concern about himself, and have grace that day to preach the sim- 
ple gospel. He confessed before God and the people that his heart 
had been set on preaching a great sermon. He prayed God to for- 
give him and enable him to preach a little sermon that should lead 



Chapter XXXVI.] SKETCHES AND INCIDENTS. 379 

souls to Christ. Long before lie rose from his knees the whole 
congregation was melted to tears, while many earnest Christian 
hearts were joining in the preacher's earnest prayer. When he 
rose at last and began his discourse there was no more stammering. 
The sermon was soul-stirring and convincing, full of the power of 
the gospel. One who heard it testifies that it was the most power- 
ful presentation of the truth he ever listened to. Scores owe their 
salvation, under God, to that prayer and sermon. 



FIFTH PERIOD. 



CHAPTER XXXVII 



TEN ASSEMBLIES— 1861 TO 1870. 

Per mare, . . per saxa, per ignes — Horace. 

OF the ninety-seven presbyteries with which the Cumberland 
Presbyterian church began this period, sixty-nine were in 
the slave States. Fifty Southern and thirteen Northern presby- 
teries were each entitled to four representatives in the General 
Assembly. In a full Assembly there would have been two hun- 
dred and thirty-eight commissioners from the Southern States, and 
eighty-two from the Northern. The Board of Church Erection 
was located at St. Louis, Missouri; the Boards of Education and 
Publication at Nashville, Tennessee; and the Board of Missions 
and the Theological School at Lebanon, Tennessee — all on South- 
ern soil, though St. Louis was far more under Northern than 
Southern control. It was generally claimed as a Northern city, 
but as it had but two congregations of Cumberland Presbyterians, 
both of them feeble and struggling missions, it was not a favorable 
location for a church board. 

When the crushing weight of the war rested on the Southern 
States, it rested on and paralyzed over two thirds of our people, so 
that our General Assemblies, which all met north of the military 
Jines during the whole war, were greatly weakened. When the 
Assembly of 1861 convened in St. Louis, Missouri, there were 
twenty-nine delegates from Southern presbyteries, and twenty-one 
from Northern presbyteries: fifty out of three hundred and twenty. 
Sixty-one out of ninety-seven presbyteries had no representative at 
the organization. The question was seriously debated whether or 

(380) 



Chapter XXXVII.] TEN ASSEMBLIES. 381 

not those present should try to transact business for the church 
when so large a number of the presbyteries were not represented. 
It is well, however, that they decided the question affirmatively, 
for no better representation was secured until the great military 
struggle was over. 

The church boards all managed to have their reports before the 
Assembly of 1861, and though the state of the country had already 
diminished their prosperity, yet they all showed a slight gain upon 
the preceding year's work. The Theological School had been 
suspended. The Missionary Board reported twenty-two thousand 
dollars receipts, fifty-five hundred dollars of it being a legacy. 
Only one hundred and thirty-three dollars had been paid to agents. 
In the ten Assemblies now under discussion much time was occu- 
pied in considering questions growing out of the war, but all that 
is reserved for the next chapter. 

The General Assembly of 1862 met at Owensboro, Kentucky. 
The selection of that place was made in the spirit of conservatism. 
It is on the line between the two great sections then at war with 
each other, but the state of the country was such that no repre- 
sentatives of the Southern presbyteries were in attendance. When 
the Assembly was organized, sixty-nine presbyteries were unrepre- 
sented. It is not difficult to understand the reason why the South- 
ern presbyteries were not represented. It was either wholly impos- 
sible for delegates to cross the military lines, or altogether too 
dangerous to be undertaken. The chances of being treated as a 
spy, or of being sent to a military prison, awaited any man from 
either section who crossed the lines without a pass; and passes for 
such trips to go and return were not granted. 

The boards located in Tennessee had no representatives and no 
reports before this Assembly. These boards were, in fact, wholly 
unable even to have a meeting. All such operations were sus- 
pended. In this emergency two temporary committees were 
appointed by the Assembly, one on missions, and another on 
publication, to take charge, for the time, of these interests. The 
Committee on Publication was composed of men living far apart. 
They were to act in co-operation with the board at Nashville, if 
that was practicable, but independently of that board if they found 




3 8s 



Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period v. 




it necessary. The Committee on Missions was composed of men 
living in three different States. We are not surprised, therefore, 
at the nature of the reports made by these committees to the next 
Assembly. 

When the General Assembly of 1863 met at Alton, Illinois, 
sixty-nine presbyteries were still without representatives, and none 
of the boards located in the South sent any report or representa- 
tive. The two committees appointed to co-operate respectively 
with the Board of Missions and the Board of Publication, or to 
supplement their work, reported nothing done. These committees 
were then both re-organized. The one on missions was located at 
Alton, Illinois, and the one on publication at Pittsburg, Pennsyl- 
vania. Neither the Board of Missions at Lebanon nor the Board 
of Publication at Nashville was disbanded, but these new boards 
were organized for existing emergencies. 

When a committee appointed by the General Assembly went to 
Nashville to take charge of the books, plates, and other property 
of the Board of Publication, with a view to removing these effects 
to Pittsburg, they encountered one serious obstacle. There was a 
debt against the board, and the creditors interfered to prevent the 
removal of the property. The committee returned without the 
books. They then raised money to pay off the debt, and when it 
was paid the books were safely shipped to Pittsburg. P. G. Rea 
and Frederick Lack were the committee. During their visit to 
Nashville no unpleasant word passed between them and the repre- 
sentatives of the Nashville board. * 

In 1864 the General Assembly met in Lebanon, Ohio. The 
times were stormy, and the Assembly spent much of its session in 
discussing questions connected with the great national struggle. 

The General Assembly of 1865, which was held at Evansville, 
Indiana, was more conservative than its predecessor. Owensboro, 
Kentucky, was nominated by the Rev. J. W. Woods, a Federal 
chaplain, and chosen as the place for the next Assembly. 

From 1862 to 1865 the state of things in the Southern portion 
of the church was distressing beyond all description. No dele- 
gates could reach the General Assembly. No Cumberland Presby- 



1 Private letter of Dr. W. E. Ward to Dr. Beard, written at the time. 



Chapter XXXVII.] TEN ASSEMBLIES. 383 

terian paper was published in the South after the fall of Fort Don- 
nelson, February, 1862. Papers from the Northern part of the 
church very rarely reached Southern readers. Even the proceed- 
ings of the General Assemblies were unknown. Synods and pres- 
byteries could seldom meet except at called sessions, the regular 
meetings being prevented by military events. The records of 
some of these Southern presbyteries show failure after failure in 
their efforts to hold even called meetings. The place appointed 
might be accessible enough when the call was made, but not 
accessible when the time for meeting arrived. 

In view of these things it was resolved to try to hold annual 
conventions to be composed of delegates from all the Southern 
presbyteries. Several unsuccessful attempts to bring such a con- 
vention together to consult about the church's interests were made 
prior to 1863. Finally calls for a convention to meet in Chatta- 
nooga, Tennessee, were published in the secular papers. The 
time set for this meeting was August 10, 1863. As far as possible 
private letters were also sent to all the Southern presbyteries. 
The convention was to be composed of delegates from the presby- 
teries, the same ratio of representation being adopted as that 
observed in regard to commissioners to the General Assembly. In 
the organization of the convention, however, some elders and 
preachers who were not commissioned by any presbytery were 
present, and were admitted to seats. The convention was com- 
posed of over sixty members. Its Minutes were never published; 
therefore in giving a synopsis of its proceedings reliance is placed 
on private memoranda taken down at the time. There were only 
three important measures adopted. The first was the appointment 
of a missionary committee located in the army, with General A. P. 
Stewart chairman. The second was to resolve to hold annual con- 
ventions at the same time that the General Assembly met. The 
third was the adoption of a resolution steadfastly to resist any 
movement which looked toward the division of the church. 

The largest Cumberland Presbyterian convention of this period 
met in Selma, Alabama, May, 1864. x It had about one hundred 
and fifty delegates. A most touching letter from the Rev. Milton 

x My own memoranda, and papers furnished by N. Waller, of Selma, Alabama. 



384 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period v. 

Bird, D.D., was received by this body. Bird lived north of the 
military lines, and his letter pleaded for the nnity of the church. 
Many present were moved to tears while they listened to this letter. 
The convention changed the membership of the Committee on Mis- 
sions from army men to citizens with a fixed residence. The new 
committee was located at Selma. But those were times when 
Southern citizens as a rule were almost as destitute of a fixed resi- 
dence as were the soldiers, and in a short time it was proved that the 
members of the Selma committee were no exceptions. This com- 
mittee, however, did good work so long as it had power to meet. 

Inasmuch as the Cumberland Presbyterian papers in the South 
were all suspended, the Selma convention resolved to publish a 
religious weekly, and elected the Rev. L. C. Ransom editor. A 
copy of the Southern Observer would be quite a curiosity now. 
The same edition would be partly on foolscap paper, partly on 
brown wrapping paper, and partly on wall-paper. The coining of 
the United States troops to Selma put an end to its career. 

A very small convention met in Memphis, Tennessee, the next 
year. But the church throughout the South thought the time for 
conventions past, inasmuch as the way promised to be opened for 
all sections to be represented in the next General Assembly. 

In 1866 the way was open for delegates from the Southern as 
well as the Northern States to attend the General Assembly, and 
there was a very full delegation from both sections. The Assem- 
bly met at Owensboro, Kentucky. It appointed a general fast-day 
to pray for more preachers. A very large number of the young 
ministers of the church had been killed in the war. This Assem- 
bly recognized both the Board of Missions at Alton and the one at 
Lebanon as legitimate boards of the church. The Committee on 
Missions which had long been at work on the Pacific coast was 
also at this time taken under the care of the General Assembly. 
The board located at Lebanon made its first report since 1861. It 
had held no meeting during the war, neither had it established 
any missions or collected any money. It gave the Assembly its 
reasons. Those who have lived in a country overrun by armies 
and blazing with battles will readily guess what the reasons were. 
Others could never understand them. 



Chapter XXXVIL] TEN ASSEMBLIES. 385 

The next General Assembly, 1867, met in Memphis, Tennessee. 
There was a very full attendance. A sermon about the church as 
the body of Christ, which was preached at this Assembly by the 
Rev. L. C. Ransom, deserves to be specially mentioned. The 
preacher spoke of wounds in the body. He said' every thing 
depended on the state of health. The forces of nature could soon 
overcome wounds in a healthy body, but a weak, sickly condition 
might make even small wounds fatal. The healthy condition of 
the church, Christ's body, was a state of vigorous spiritual life, 
and depended on daily communion with Jesus. Such a state 
would insure the rapid healing up of any wounds which it was 
possible for the body to receive. He said there were no wrongs 
which could possibly separate true Christians hopelessly, no wrongs 
which such Christians could not adjust. He based his hopes for 
preserving our church unity on the vigorous spirituality which 
Cumberland Presbyterians still preserved as a heritage from their 
fathers, and. which, by the wonderful grace of God, had been main- 
tained through all the trying contest which had deluged our land 
in blood. This Assembly resolved to discontinue the Committee 
on Publication located at Pittsburg, and to reorganize the board at 
Nashville, and directed that the assets should be transferred from 
Pittsburg to Nashville. Motions looking to the re-organization 
of this board at Nashville had been made in a former Assembly, 
but owing to the impoverished condition of all the Southern 
States the measure had been delayed. 

The corresponding delegate representing the Cumberland Pres- 
byterian church in the General Assembly of the Presbyterian 
church (Southern), had on his own authority stated in his speech 
to that body that he believed the time for steps toward organic 
union had come. That Assembly thereupon (November, 1866) 
appointed a committee to meet a similar committee from our 
church. The Cumberland Presbyterian committee was appointed 
by our Assembly in 1867. The two committees met in Memphis 
the following August. A long and pleasant conference was held. 
At the first meeting a resolution was adopted expressing the belief 
that the strengthening and edification of the church and the salva- 
tion of sinners would be greatly promoted by the union of the two 
2 5 



386 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period v. 

churches. Each of the two committees, after consulting sepa- 
rately, presented a statement of the conditions upon which it was 
thought possible to effect an organic union. The Presbyterian 
committee proposed that the union should be formed u on the 
basis of the old Standards as they were held by the fathers previ- 
ous to the separation. ' ' The committee representing the Cumber- 
land Presbyterian church agreed to give up our church name; to 
surrender our Standards and accept those of the Presbyterian 
church in the matter of ministerial education, and to adopt the 
Presbyterian Standards, or such modifications of them as might be 
mutually acceptable, on all other points of difference in Form of 
Government and Discipline. But they asked that the Confession 
of Faith and Catechism of the Cumberland Presbyterian church 
should be adopted instead of the Presbyterian Confession and Cate- 
chism; or, as an alternative, they agreed to adopt the doctrinal 
Standards of the Presbyterian church with the modifications of the 
third, fifth, eighth, and seventeenth chapters of the Westminster 
Confession of Faith indicated on pages 69 and 70 of this History. 
In case this should not be satisfactory, the Cumberland Presbyte- 
rian committee expressed their willingness to accept a new com- 
pilation on the basis of the Westminster Standards which should 
exclude all phraseology and modes of expression which might 
plausibly be construed as favoring the idea of fatality or necessity. 
The conference closed, and these propositions were referred to the 
General Assemblies of the two churches. The Presbyterian Assem- 
bly met first (November, 1867), and voted down the proposed union, 
adopting the following deliverance on this subject: 

The Assembly hereby records its devout acknowledgement to the 
Great Head of the church for the manifest tokens of his presence with 
the committees of conference during their deliberations as evinced by 
the spirit of Christian candor, forbearance, and love displayed by both 
oarties in their entire proceedings. The Assembly regards the object 
for which the committees were appointed as one fully worthy of the 
earnest endeavors and continued prayers of God's people in both 
branches of the church represented in the committees. But at the 
same time it is compelled, in view of the terms for effecting any organic 
union suggested by the committee of the Cumberland Presbyterian 
church, to declare that, regarding the present period as one very un- 



Chapter XXXVII.] TEN ASSEMBLIES. 387 

favorable for making changes in our standards of faith and practice, it 
is more especially so for effecting changes so materially modifying the 
system of doctrine which has for centuries been the distinguishing 
peculiarity and eminent glory of the Presbyterian churches both of 
Europe and the United States. 

This was equivalent to a decision by the Presbyterian church, 
that doctrinal differences are the one bar to union with Cumber- 
land Presbyterians. 

Delegates appointed by the Cumberland Presbyterian General 
Assembly for the sole purpose of bearing fraternal greetings to 
other churches have several times abused their official positions by 
inaugurating negotiations looking toward organic union with these 
churches. This has been done at least four times since the war. 
The Assembly of 1886 adopted a resolution requiring correspond- 
ing delegates to refrain from all such unauthorized ofHciousness. 

The General Assembly of 1868 met at Lincoln, Illinois. The 
Board of Publication at Nashville had been organized by the elec- 
tion of the Rev. A. J. Baird, president, and the Rev. J. C. Provine, 
financial agent. Its receipts for the year were $12,208. The 
previous Assembly had appointed a committee to revise the Form 
of Government (not the Confession of Faith), and the report of 
this committee occupied a large part of this Assembly's time. 
This revised discipline was on hand for several years. It was 
referred to the presbyteries three times, but their responses not 
being satisfactory in any case, it was finally abandoned. 

The General Assembly of 1869 met at Murfreesboro, Tennessee. 
Various matters in the action of these Assemblies, it will be remem- 
bered, are reserved for special chapters. Except such reserved 
items, the chief work of this Assembly was the consolidation of 
the three missionary boards into one. The Cumberland Presbyte- 
rian, then published in Pennsylvania, had been earnestly urging 
this consolidation. The Theological School, the Board of Publi- 
cation, and the Board of Missions were regarded as the three most 
important denominational enterprises, and there was among the 
delegates in this Assembly a general feeling in favor of establishing 
one of these in the Northern part of the church. A movement 
with this end in view was inaugurated by representatives from the 









388 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period v. 

South, and at the suggestion of Northern representatives the con- 
solidated Board of Missions was located at St. Louis, Missouri. 
The wisdom of this selection needs no vindication. A point far- 
ther north than St. Louis would have been too near the outer 
border of the church. Under this new arrangement it was under- 
stood that the whole church was to co-operate with the Board of 
Missions at St. Louis, and also with the Board of Publication and 
the Theological School located respectively at Nashville and Leb- 
anon, Tennessee. With only such exceptions as all human affairs 
abound in, this pledge is still kept in good faith. 

Between the Assembly of 1869 and that of 1870 a sharp discus- 
sion arose over the plans of the Board of Missions. The Assembly 
had divided the ecclesiastical year into quarters, assigning to each 
of the four principal enterprises of the church one quarter for its 
financial collections. The aim of this quarterly system was to 
avoid conflicting calls upon the congregations, and, by having all 
the pastors take these regular quarterly collections, to supersede 
the employment of agents by the boards. As soon as the consoli- 
dated Board of Missions at St. Louis was organized, it decided to 
adopt a system of agencies similar to those employed by insurance 
companies. There were two obligations which, some people 
thought, were violated by this scheme. The Assembly's plan for 
quarterly work by the pastors would be virtually set aside, and the 
pledge of co-operation with the other church boards would be 
infringed. If agents were to be sent out to canvass the churches 
all the year round as proposed, working only for missions, there 
would be conflicts, and, it was feared, very little co-operation. 
Long articles on both sides of the question appeared in the church 
papers. 

The Board of Missions argued that the pastoral system of the 
church was as yet too imperfect to justify the abandonment of 
agencies. The other side replied that all ministers, whether pas- 
tors or supplies, were expected to work under the quarterly system, 
and would in time all fall into line. When the Assembly of 1870 
met at Warrensburg, Missouri, the Board of Missions proposed as 
a compromise that its agents should be intrusted with all the col- 
lections for all the boards of the church. The Assembly referred 



Chapter XXXVII.] . TEN ASSEMBLIES. 389 

the whole matter to a committee composed of representatives of all 
the boards. None of the other boards agreed to the proposed com- 
promise; but they submitted another plan which was accepted and 
approved by the Assembly. The substance of this compromise 
was that the quarterly system should be suspended for one year, 
and that the missionary board and all the other boards should be 
allowed to work on their own plans. The friends of the mission- 
ary board felt confident that one year's test of their plan would 
demonstrate its utility. But their expectations were not realized, 
and the system of quarterly collections was subsequently restored. 

There was a long and able discussion in the church papers 
between Dr. S. G. Burney and Dr. Milton Bird on the proposition 
to abolish synods, Dr. Burney taking the affirmative. The matter 
was brought before the General Assembly, but the proposition met 
with but little favor. It was not referred to the presbyteries, 
though most of the presbyteries discussed the question, and gave 
utterance to their views on the subject. Much interest was awak- 
ened throughout the whole church by this discussion, not only 
because both the disputants were men of marked ability and used 
very able arguments, but also because the question really had two 
sides, with a long array of facts favoring each side. 

The church periodicals of this period were numerous, but most 
of them short lived. The Cumberland Presbyterian, in Pennsyl- 
vania, was published all through the war. The Banner of Peace 
was suspended from 1862 till the war closed, and then revived. 
With various changes of name and auspices, a weekly paper was 
kept up either at St. Louis, Missouri, or at Alton, Illinois, through- 
out this period. After the war The Ladies* Pearl and the Theo- 
logical Medium, the former a monthly and the latter a quarterly, 
were revived, and Dr. T. C. Blake established the Sunday-school 
Gem. This was the first Sunday-school paper ever published in 
the interest of the Cumberland Presbyterian church. This little 
paper has been the means of leading many a child to Jesus. 

The new presbyteries appearing on the Minutes of the Assem- 
bly in this period are: Huntsville (1866), Leavenworth (1867), 
Guthrie (1868), King, Bethel, and Tulare (1869). The work of 
consolidating the synods began in this period, so that there were 



390 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period v. 

fewer synods in the church but much larger ones in 1870 than in 
i860. Through such consolidation the Kentucky Synod disap- 
peared from the roll in 1865, and the Ozark Synod in 1866. The 
latter was re-organized in 187 1. The name of Union Synod was 
changed to Alabama (1867), and that of Sacramento to Pacific (1863). 



Chapter XXXVIII.] THE WAR RECORD. 391 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 



THE WAR RECORD. 

They strive alike for truth's behoof, 
For God and country, right and roof. 

—J. G. Holland. 

IN this period several General Assemblies were held which were 
not accessible to Southern representatives, and there were also 
conventions of delegates from Southern presbyteries not accessible 
to Northern men. Then after the war closed there were several 
Assemblies in which the representatives of the church from both 
sections met and deliberated together. The deliverances of these 
several Assemblies and conventions concerning subjects connected 
with the civil war are now to be considered. It seems most impar^ 
tial to give the full text of these deliverances, as it is possible to 
make a wrong impression by omissions, or to change a fair history 
into a partisan one by omitting portions of the record. 

Before proceeding to these deliverances let us read the opening 
sermon of the Assembly of 1861 as it was reported in the papers at 
the time. This sermon was preached by the Rev. Milton Bird, 
D.D., from Hebrews xiii. 1: "Let brotherly love continue. " The 
speaker introduced the subject with the inquiry, Who are brothers ? 
and then proceeded to say: 

In the most comprehensive sense of the word, all men are brethren, 
being made of the same blood. In its most limited signification those 
who are born of the same immediate parents are brethren. In the 
Bible sense of the term, Christians — those who are born of God, 
adopted into his family, and made partakers of his Spirit — are brethren. 
It is of this great brotherhood in Christ that the apostle speaks when 
he says, Let brotherly love continue. 

1. It is a fact that Christians love one another. The spirit of Chris- 
tianity is a spirit of love; faith works by love; pure Christianity is the 
strongest bond of friendship and kindness. That religion which is 



392 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period v. 

not so is unworthy of the name. It is sounding brass or a tinkling 
cymbal, i John v. 12; iv. 7, 8, 9, 16; and iii. 14, 15. 

2. The continuance of brotherly love is the true apostolic succes- 
sion. There is but this one sense in which there is a regular line, de- 
scent, or succession from the apostles. All who are regenerated by the 
Holy Spirit and built together upon Christ, the corner-stone, are in the 
regular line — no others. Any other succession than this is a gross 
delusion. They who set themselves up as the only church in virtue of 
a regular line of popes, or apostolic ordinations, or water baptisms, 
deceive themselves and others. The true church of Christ is made up 
of all regenerated persons of all ages, nations, and denominations. All 
who have been born of the Spirit are brethren; they are one, and 
should love one another as God has commanded. The true line of suc- 
cession revealed in the gospel is the law of life in Christ Jesus, which 
makes us free from the law of sin and death. All in whom this law 
abides recognize the same Spirit in each other by his outgoings from 
their hearts; and with a pure heart they fervently love one another as 
brethren. Judas was an apostle, and Simon, the sorcerer, was bap- 
tized; but outward ceremonies and rites were not sufficient to place 
them in the true line of succession; they were without the spirit and 
law of life in Christ Jesus; their hearts were not right in the sight of 
God. 

Trusting in barren ordinances and rejecting the vital spirit of Chris- 
tianity has perverted and poisoned the church. Ecclesiastical bodies 
without the renewing life of the Holy Spirit are not the habitations of 
God. They are not built upon the corner-stone, nor cemented together 
by brotherly love in the unity of the spirit and the bonds of peace. 
They conform to the world, and are attractive to the carnally minded 
because such can live in their communion without any restraint upon 
their follies and lusts. The current of the world has set so strongly 
into the true and living church, that multitudes make profession of 
religion and connect themselves with the visible church who are little 
if any better than before. They are often full of envy and strife among 
themselves, being desirous of vainglory, provoking one another, envy- 
ing one another; and they often have more bitter prejudices and less 
charity for those who do not agree with them about some rite or minor 
point of doctrine than the people of the world. Alas, for such Chris- 
tianity as does not change the carnal mind, and turn the heart from 
hatred to love, and prove itself genuine by yielding the fruits of the 
Spirit — " love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 
meekness, temperance." Such a religion is not worth the name. It 
had been better, infinitely better, for the cause of truth and the world, 
had it never existed. "They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh 



Chapter XXXVIIL] THE WAR RECORD. 393 

with the affections and lusts." " If we live in the spirit, let iis also walk 
in the spirit.' " Let brotherly love continue." 

3. When is brotherly love in danger of being lost? 

At the time when it was said to the Hebrews, " Let brotherly love 
continue," the Jewish people were divided and distracted among them- 
selves about matters of State and religion. Both the church and State 
were greatly corrupted and demoralized. So it is now in our nation. 
This fact can not be disguised; we all painfully feel it. Most of our old 
men, great men and good men both in church and State, have died. 
The rude blast was permitted to shake them like ripe fruit to their fall. 
Our beloved country is now convulsed with civil war. Why and how 
this was brought about, and who is to blame for it, is not for me to say 
in this place. Of the fact I speak, and a lamentable fact it is to every 
patriot, to every Christian heart. In such times as these brotherly love 
is in great danger of being lost. 

Brothers in Christ, though our country is divided and engaged in 
fratricidal war, we are brethren still, we can not afford to separate. 
Pure religion changes not. Its life is love, its atmosphere peace. As 
soon could heaven sink into hell, or hell rise up to heaven, as a change 
come over the pure principles and spirit of Christianity. Love can not 
become hatred; it always endeavors to keep the unity of the Spirit in 
the bonds of peace. If we are the followers of the meek and lowly 
Jesus, we are the subjects of a kingdom not of this world. The 
weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but spiritual; we wield the 
sword of the Spirit. The more we love one another with a pure heart 
fervently, the better we can fight the battles of the Prince of Peace. 
If the spirit of Christ is in us, we will let brotherly love continue. We 
will not dishonor the white flag of heaven, nor give aid to the black 
flag of hell by strife and division. A pure and honest Christian is just 
and true still, though the heavens fall. He will not desert the standard, 
nor give aid and encouragement to the enemy of God. He will not 
wound the Captain-General of his salvation in the house of his friends. 
Brethren, we are in the midst of temptations; and motives to disobedi- 
ence, alienation, and division present themselves on every hand. Let 
us, as Christians, prove our faith and love and verify our profession by 
abiding in love and in obedience to the laws of God and man in humble 
imitation of him who was obedient unto death. 

In our organic relations as brethren let the pure spirit and principle 
of Christianity continue to connect us as one body. Christ is not 
divided, why should we divide? There is no sufficient cause. That 
which can not divide Christ should not be permitted to divide his peo- 
ple. A double guard and a most rigid scrutiny are required of every 
Christian who would do his duty in times so perilous as these upon 



394 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period v. 

which we have fallen. We find alarming developments in the tone of 
some of the secular and so-called religious journals which profess at 
once to express and guide the public mind. These openly evince an 
utter disregard for truth and right, of constitution and law, and do their 
utmost to marshal North and South against each other in the most 
bitter malignity. 

In these times of serious religious apostasy and general political 
corruption on which we have fallen, city and State and nation are 
tainted with the virus of loathsome disease; magistrates take bribes, 
legislators are more selfish than patriotic, and rulers are oftentimes 
demagogues instead of statesmen. It is easy to do wrong in matters 
which seem insignificant, owing to the circumstances which have 
brought other things into greater prominence. It is very easy, in a 
time of general defection and excitement, to lose sight of those funda- 
mental principles of right by which we are bound to act at all times. 
It is very easy to loosen the restraints which God's law, conscience, and 
good government impose for our welfare and to keep us in unity as 
brethren. It requires genuine faith in God to stand firm in these times 
of general defection of church and State. The pulpit has been per- 
verted and the church prostrated. The standard of morality has been 
lowered, and the nation so demoralized that God and the Bible have 
been repudiated, passion and lust have been enthroned. The nation 
has defied the binding force of the law of the Sabbath. The country 
has been ruled by the passion of avarice. God will humble the pride 
of the nation. Sectional war has fallen upon the land as a just judg- 
ment of the Almighty. It is a punishment for the ingratitude and 
guilty delusion, folly, and blindness of the people. Let the church and 
the nation humble themselves beneath the rod, and, in penitential con- 
fession and earnest supplication to God, seek deliverance from the most 
terrible calamity and threatened destruction. 

Beloved brethren, we must not allow ourselves to be drawn into 
disputes about the things which belong to Caesar, and so become 
divided in things which belong to God. Each must allow others to 
follow their convictions of right in regard to the unfortunate condition 
produced by the Northern and Southern extremists who have dismem- 
bered our once happy and prosperous Union. Before this rupture our 
religion was not geographical or sectional, nor is it so since the rupture. 
If a sectional religion divides us here, and destroys brotherly love, it 
will exclude us from heaven. There is no Northern or Southern religion 
there, but God's redeemed in heaven come from the north and the 
south, from the east and the west. Disputes about religion should 
never be suffered to cool our Christian affection. Christians should 
always love and live as brethren. Without regard to name, denomina- 



Chapter XXXVIII.] THE WAR RECORD. 395 

tion, or peculiar views, they should recognize each other as members 
of the same great spiritual family. More especially should those who 
agree in doctrine and practice cultivate friendly relations, and remain 
one. The sea is rocking, the waves are rolling, great is the necessity 
therefore that we should stand firm in this perilous hour, and show that 
our church has enough of the life and power of godliness to be capable 
of braving the storm and guiding the ship. We must look to Jehovah, 
who is the God of the rainbow as of the deluge. He reigns in the 
storm as in the calm. How appropriate and how full of comfort the 
language of the Psalmist, as read in your hearing in the introduction 
of these exercises, " God is our refuge and strength, a very present help 
in trouble. Therefore, will not we fear though the earth be removed, 
and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea, though 
the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake 
with the swelling thereof. . . . He maketh wars to cease unto the end 
of the earth; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; he 
burneth the chariot in the fire." We are in the hands of the Lord. 
Only let us do our duty and put our trust in him and all will be well. 
He will protect his people and save his church. As we have loved 
each other heretofore, so let brotherly love continue until all men shall 
be constrained to cry aloud, "Behold, how good and pleasant it is for 
brethren to dwell together in unity." 

Through all these bitter years the voice of Milton Bird rang 
out on the same key, nor did it ring in vain. 

The Assembly of 186 1 met at St. Louis. After a preamble de- 
ploring the war, it put on record the following resolutions: 

Resolved, 1. That we recognize the good providence and rich grace 
of Almighty God in bringing our General Assembly together in the 
present fearful crisis in the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace, 
and in giving us to experience "How good and how pleasant it is for 
brethren to dwell together in unity." 

2. That while we regret the circumstances which have prevented 
the attendance of commissioners from some of the presbyteries, we do 
now and hereby record our sincere thanks to our heavenly Father that 
brethren have met from north and south, east and west, and that 
brotherly kindness and love have continued from the opening to the 
close of our present meeting — nothing occurring to disturb in the least 
the warm and brotherly spirit of unity and peace. 

3. That, the grace of God assisting us, we will always endeavor to 
cherish the true principles and pure spirit of Christianity; that, with 
this enthroned in our hearts, we can and will walk in love and live in 



396 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period v. 

peace; that thus we may walk and live in the bonds of unbroken 
brotherhood, we do hereby recommend that unceasing prayer be made 
throughout the whole church for the guidance and blessing of Almighty 
God through these times of great peril and trouble. 

4. That the General Assembly do now and hereby recommend to 
every person, family, and congregation composing our church the 
observance of the twenty-second day of June as a day of humiliation, 
fasting, and prayer before and unto that God who has said, " Be still, 
and know that I am God," for the deliverance of his church out of her 
fiery trials, and for a righteous and peaceful solution of the troubles and 
fratricidal war that now curse our common country. 

The General Assembly of 1862, Held at Owensboro, Kentucky, 
adopted the following report: 

The committee submit the following report: Since the last meeting 
of this body the church has been passing through a severe ordeal. No 
small injury to her spiritual and temporal interests has resulted from the 
crisis of public affairs, religious and civil. While in some portions of 
the church there have been precious revivals of religion, still there is an 
evident want of an earnest-hearted Christianity. . . . Our church in its 
teachings on the subject of our duties to the civil government has in its 
doctrines (drawn, as we believe, from the word of God) set up a pure 
and lofty standard of Christian morality, included in which is the doc- 
trine that government is God's institution, not a mere human regulation, 
and that obedience in its constitutional sphere is a religious as well as a 
civil obligation. This doctrine is particularly set forth in our Confession 
of Faith, chapter 23, section 4: "It is the duty of the people to pray for 
magistrates, to honor their persons, to pay them tribute and other 
duties; to obey their lawful commands, and to be subject to their 
authority for conscience' sake. Infidelity or difference in religion 
does not make void the magistrate's just and legal authority, nor free 
the people from their due obedience to him, from which ecclesiastical 
persons are not exempted." 

Chapter 20, section 4: "And because the powers which God hath 
ordained and the liberty which Christ hath purchased are not intended 
by God to destroy, but mutually to uphold and preserve one another, 
they who upon pretense of Christian liberty shall oppose any lawful 
power, or the lawful exercise of it, whether it be civil or ecclesiastical, 
resist the ordinance of God. And for their publishing of such opin- 
ions, or maintaining of such practices as are contrary to the light of 
nature or to the known principles of Christianity, whether concerning 
faith, worship, or conversation, or the power of godliness, or such 
erroneous opinions or practices as either in their own nature, or in the 



Chapter XXXVIII.] THE WAR RECORD. 397 

manner of publishing or maintaining them, are destructive to the ex- 
ternal peace and order which Christ hath established in the church, they 
may lawfully be called to account, and proceeded against by the cen- 
sures of the church." 

Regarding our duties to civil government, we refer our ministers 
and people to the aforementioned article of our faith as the utterance 
of the Assembly on the subject. In connection with this we invite 
their attention to, and strict observance of, chapter 31, section 4: 
" Synods and councils are to handle or conclude nothing but that which 
is ecclesiastical, and are not to intermeddle with civil affairs which con, 
cern the commonwealth, unless by humble petition, in cases extraordi- 
nary, or by way of advice for satisfaction of conscience, if they be 
thereunto required by the civil magistrate." 

Resolved, 1. That in the teaching of our Confession of Faith, as 
well as in our admirable civil constitution, church and State are wisely 
kept apart, and the principle established that ecclesiastical legislation is 
not needed for the State, nor civil legislation, except for security of 
person and property, which is a political right, for the church. 

2. That in this time of trial w T e approve and re-indorse unequivocally 
the above-mentioned article of our faith, and agreeably thereto we at all 
times hold ourselves accountable for our ecclesiastical relations and con- 
duct to the church. 

3. That we deeply deplore the carnage and demoralizing tendency 
of a war of brothers. 

4. That in the present crisis of our public affairs we regard the 
church and the nation especially called upon to humble themselves 
before God for their many and grievous sins, imploring his assistance 
in bringing the war to a speedy conclusion in a righteous peace. 

5. That in this time of confused passion we will, so far as in us lies, 
endeavor to allay and not exasperate the feelings of those who differ 
from us, and we most earnestly and affectionately advise our ministers 
and members to cultivate forbearance and conciliation; to avoid parti- 
sanship and sectionalism in church and State; and to evidence their 
loyalty to Cresar by their loyalty to Christ in following his example and 
teaching, and thus continue in brotherly love, and stand before the 
world a united brotherhood, walking in the comfort of love and in the 
fellowship of the Spirit. 

6. That we deeply sympathize with those stricken families in our 
several congregations now mourning the death of loved ones fallen in 
the bloody strife, and we commend them to the tender compassion of 
the God of all consolation who is good, a stronghold in the day of 
trouble, and who knoweth them that trust in him. (Nahum i. 7«) 

Adopted unanimously by the committee. 



398 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period v. 

This report was signed by Milton Bird, Chairman, W. F. Baird, 
Archibald Johnson, A. B. Brice, H. C. Read, F. A. Witherspoon, 
J. B. Green, J. B. Logan, J. H. Nickell, J. M. Gill, and I. N. Cary. 

The General Assembly of 1863, at Alton, Illinois, adopted the 
following: 

Your special committee to whom was referred the memorial from 
the Synod of Ohio touching the morality of political secession and the 
institution of American slavery, have had the subject assigned them 
under prayerful, protracted, and patient investigation, and in answer to 
the memorial before us, and, also, in order to present a paper that will 
embody a deliverance from this General Assembly touching these sub- 
jects, we submit the following preamble and resolutions: 

Whereas, This General Assembly of the Cumberland Presbyte- 
rian church in the United States of America can not conceal from itself 
the lamentable truth that the very existence of our church and nation is 
endangered by a gigantic rebellion against the rightful authority of the 
general government of the United States, which rebellion has plunged 
the nation into the most dreadful civil war; and, whereas, The church 
is the light of the world, and can not withhold her testimony upon 
great moral and religious questions, and upon measures so deeply affect- 
ing the great interests of Christian civilization, without becoming justly 
chargeable with the sin of hiding her light under a bushel; therefore, 

Resolved, 1. That loyalty and obedience to the general government 
in the exercise of its legitimate authority, are the imperative Christian 
duties of every citizen; and that treason and rebellion are not mere 
political offenses of one section against another, but heinous sins against 
God and his authority. 

2. That the interests of our common Christianity, and the cause of 
Christian civilization and national freedom throughout the world, impel 
us to hope and pray God (in whom is all our trust) that this unnatural 
rebellion may be put down, and the rightful authority of the general 
government re-established and maintained. 

3. That we deeply sympathize with our fellow-countrymen and 
brethren who, in the midst of great temptation and sufferings, have 
stood firm in their devotion to God and their country; and, also, with 
those who have been driven, contrary to their judgment and wishes, 
into the ranks of the rebellion. 

4. That in this time of trial and darkness we re-indorse the pream- 
ble and resolution adopted by the General Assembly of the Cumber- 
land Presbyterian church at Clarksville, Tennessee, on the 24th day of 
May, 1850, which are as follows: 

"Whereas, In the opinion of this General Assembly the preserva- 



Chapter XXXVIII.] THE WAR RECORD. 399 

tion of the union of these States is essential to the civil and religious 
liberty of the people; and it is regarded as proper and commendable in 
the church, and more particularly in the branch which we represent (it 
having had its origin within the limits of the United States of America, 
and that soon after the blood of our revolutionary fathers had ceased to 
flow in that unequal contest through which they were successfully con- 
ducted by the strong arm of Jehovah), to express its devotion on all 
suitable occasions to the government of their choice; therefore, 

"Resolved, That this General Assembly look with censure and dis- 
approbation upon attempts from any quarter to dissolve this Union, and 
would regard the success of any such movement as exceedingly hazard- 
ous to the cause of religion, as well as civil liberty. And this General 
Assembly would strongly recommend to all Christians to make it a sub- 
ject of prayer to Almighty God to avert from our beloved country a 
catastrophe so direful and disastrous." 

The General Assembly of 1864 met at Lebanon, Ohio. The 
momentous events then transpiring and the perilous and excited 
state of the country doubtless had much influence in shaping the 
deliverance of this Assembly. It adopted the following: 

The special committee appointed to consider the memorial from the 
Presbytery of Indiana, and to which was referred the communication 
from the Presbytery of Richland, would respectfully report that the 
questions brought under consideration in the memorial and communica- 
tion are of deepest interest to the church at the present time. This is a 
season of extraordinary events and unusual responsibilities. God, the 
Maker of the world, the Governor of kingdoms and States, who will be 
known by the judgments he executes, seems now to be dealing with 
the nations in his displeasure, and in dignity and majesty he is march- 
ing through the land, while the foundations of society are breaking up. 
Then, it is a time when we should look to the wrong that we may for- 
sake it, and inquire diligently for the truth that we may embrace it as a 
precious thing that can not be disregarded without offending the Most 
High. 

The question intended to be brought to the consideration of your 
reverend body by the Presbytery of Indiana is contained in the fourth 
resolution of its memorial, which is as follows: 

"Resolved, further, That in this great crisis of our church and nation 
we memorialize the next General Assembly of the Cumberland Presby- 
terian church to set forth still more fully and more clearly than it did 
last spring, the social and moral evils inherent in the system of slavery 
as it exists in the Southern States; and that it urge upon our Southern 
brethren, in all Christian faithfulness, that the time has fully come, in the 



400 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period v. 

providence of God, when they can, and therefore should, without de- 
lay, abandon a system which is a reproach to our holy religion, and 
which has so imperiled our beloved church, our free government, and 
our national union." 

On this memorial we propose the following deliverance: 

Resolved, I. That we regard the holding of human beings in invol- 
untary servitude, as practiced in some of the States of the American 
Union, as contrary to the principles of our holy religion; and as being 
the fruitful source of many evils and vices in the social system. 

2. That it be recommended to Cumberland Presbyterians, both 
North and South, to give countenance and support to all constitutional 
efforts of our government to rid the country of that enormous evil. 

The business intended to be brought before your reverend body in 
the communication from the Presbytery of Richland, is contained in the 
following resolutions: 

Resolved, I. That as a presbytery we do not desire the dissolution of 
our church whether our government be permanently divided or not. 

2. That as a Presbytery we wish to cultivate the same feelings which 
have ever existed between this presbytery and the brethren of the 
whole church. 

3. That we do not think political differences a sufficient ground for 
the dissolution of any church. 

4. That this presbytery instruct her delegates to the General Assem- 
bly, to study the interests of the whole church, leaving out of view 
any sectional feeling or interest. 

In response to which your committee would say that we regard the 
preservation of the integrity of the church as of great importance, and 
we hope that all will be done that can be done to preserve it whole, 
without conniving at sin and sacrificing the principles of truth and just- 
ice, but to these we must adhere. The great Master said: "I came not 
to send peace, but a sword; for I come to set a man at variance against 
his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law 
against her mother-in-law, and a man's foes shall be they of his own 
household." Not that such was the design of his coming, but that such 
would be the effect, in that conflict that must go on between truth and 
falsehood, holiness and sin. In this conflict we must stand by our Mas- 
ter, though it require us to sever the dearest ties of time. And as this 
General Assembly has twice declared that obedience to the civil magis- 
trate is a Christian duty, therefore we must regard those who are, or have 
been, voluntarily in rebellion against the government of these United 
States, as not only guilty of a crime against the government, but also 
guilty of a great sin against God; and with such, without repentance 
and humiliation before God and the church, we can desire no fellow- 






Chapter XXXVIII.] THE WAR RECORD. 4OI 

ship. But to all such as have stood true to God and the government 
of the United States, and prove their loyalty by their works, we extend 
the cordial hand of a brother's greeting and a brother's welcome, saying 
let us live in peace, love as brethren, and toil together under the banner 
of our common Master, until we shall be called from labor to the refresh- 
ing rewards on high. 

[The committee which submitted this report consisted of W. S. 
Campbell, Illinois; Le Roy Woods, Ohio; J. L. Payne, Tennessee; Jas. 
Ritchey, Indiana; Geo. S. Adams, Iowa; J. M. Gallagher, Pennsylvania; 
H. W. Eagan, Illinois; J. B. Logan, Illinois; P. G. Rea, Missouri. The 
first item was signed by all of these, and the second item by all except 
J. L. Payne.] 

Against this action the following protest was entered: 

We protest against the action adopting the report: 1. Because the 
principle of action is erroneous, and its spirit secular and sectional. It 
makes, or seeks to make, an issue that is not made in the fundamental 
law or doctrine of the church. The point involved subverts our ecclesi- 
astical law, by inaugurating a radical course of action tending to revolu- 
tionize and destroy. The principles of the constitution of the church 
and teachings of the word of God, point out an open way, wherein all 
must walk, who avoid revolution and destruction produced by radi- 
calism, in its opposite types; it is erroneous in principle and fanatical 
in spirit, producing alienation, division, and ruin. 

2. The fundamental law of our church organization can not be 
changed, nor a new one introduced, either directly or indirectly, by any 
person in this Assembly; any action it may take overstepping this law 
or tending thereto is of no binding force, and is, in fact, merely the 
opinion of those voting for it. 

Those who demand that the time of this Assembly shall be occupied 
in the unceasing agitation of slavery, to the neglect of its legitimate busi- 
ness, say they want and must have a full and clear expression of the 
whole church. Now if such expression was not given in 1851 and 1863, 
it is certain that it is not given in 1864, when the country is in such a 
state of excitement as it never was before, and this is the smallest As- 
sembly that ever has taken action on the subject. (Here follows a 
comparison of figures to show that the Assembly of 1864, which had 
representatives from but twenty-six presbyteries out of ninety-seven, 
and had only fifty delegates present when the vote was taken, was not 
able to give the "full and clear expression of the whole church.") 

The action of the previous Assemblies was sufficiently plain and full 
to satisfy all reasonable persons, and as for others they will continue to 
clamor for increased and continued agitation. 
26 



402 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period v. 

3. Intelligence, order, piety, justice, and benevolence do not consist 
with agitation and violence, or the result thereof. Indulgence sharpens 
the appetite for agitation and makes it more craving. In the incipient 
stages of it, few if any look to the final result. It is a chronic nightmare, 
varied with periodical spasms, until its normal state is convulsion, and it 
enters upon a revolution, the radicalness of which becomes every day 
more apparent. The ever-restless and clamorous agitation is destruc- 
tive in its tendency; it generates an atmosphere of alienation and bitter- 
ness in which the genius of cohesion dies and union crumbles away. 
When the creed of the church or its fundamental law dies, or sectional 
hatred becomes stronger than love to that creed and that law and their 
sacred associations, then fanatical sectional agitation dismembers the 
church and makes its continued unity impossible, by having no common 
ground for a truce to conflict of opinion; the spirit of fanaticism not 
being less intolerant than that of the Spanish inquisition. 

4. The perpetual agitation is aimless, if its end is not to introduce 
a condition of communion such as is not made by our Savior and his 
apostles, and the framers of the constitution and discipline of our church. 
The agitation is not demanded by a type of piety and benevolence above 
that professed by others, but by a strange mania that is abroad, which 
seems to operate alike in scoffing infidels, corrupt and babbling politi- 
cians, and such professors of religion as are led or driven by the pressure 
of any peculiar circumstances which may surround them. They who 
would make the church conform to the outside secular, sectional pres- 
sure of the times, under the idea that if they do not do so, that pressure 
will crush and kill the church, take the most effectual course they could 
to destroy the spiritual life, strength, and moral influence of the church. 
Do they follow the example and believe him who said, "I will build my 
church upon this rock, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it?" 

God and his word do not change. What is our duty now was our 
duty in the past, and will be our duty in the future. Changing circum- 
stances are not the standard of duty. 

5. The adoption of the report arrives at no finality on the subject. 
The presbyteries have not had it before them, as the issue is sought to 
be made here, and therefore any action of the Assembly amounts to noth- 
ing more than an expression of the private opinion of those sustaining 
it. Present action will be no more a finality than past action, if we may 
judge the future by the past. Those voting for the report simply ex- 
press their opinion, and that opinion neither becomes the word of God 
nor the principle of the Constitution and Discipline of the church; it is 
merely agitation for the sake of agitation, and the appetite for it becomes 
more clamorous by indulgence, and it is not even satisfied when it has 
produced alienation, division, and ruin. 



Chapter XXXVIII.] THE WAR RECORD. 403 

6. We protest against the adoption of the report, because we are 
opposed to that which in effect leads to secession in church and 
State. It is a historical fact that church secession opens the way to, and 
was auxiliary to, secession and division in the State; that which carries 
forward the former aids the latter. 

There is an abolition type of disloyalty as well as a secession type; 
the latter is the offspring of the former, and there is a sympathy be- 
tween them, both operating as a unit in effect. If the end aimed at 
in ecclesiastical secession is to strengthen good government, then it is 
commendable, but it is not attained in so cheap a way. They do great- 
ly deceive themselves who think to establish a character for extraordi- 
nary patriotism and loyalty, by delivering themselves of preambles, and 
resolutions, and wind, in ecclesiastical bodies. If they would take their 
position with the suffering soldier in the front ranks under the lead of 
the true and earnest generals, then they would obtain credit for patriot- 
ism and loyalty, by showing that they had a heart to serve the country 
in its trials. It is an old but true maxim that " actions speak louder than 
words." 

7. We can not countenance the work of alienation and disorganiza- 
tion in the church, because faith and liberty suffer equally from it. The 
course of action against which we protest, we regard as unwise, es- 
pecially in the present condition of the country. There is no precedent 
in the primitive church for the policy of this action. While it does 
no good, it will do harm. In our judgment, its advocates are under 
some bewildering influence, and strangely misconceive the question 
which they undertake to settle, and the bearing of their action upon 
it. The chapter God has written upon the heart and animus of the 
Assembly, he will cause to be respected, and each one of us must meet 
it for himself at the judgment seat of Christ. 

This protest was signed by Milton Bird, Minor E. Pate, E. Bar- 
bonr, M. T. Reed, J. W. P. Davis, J. B. Green, W. B. Farr, M. V. 
Brokau, S. A. Ramsey, R. A. Reed, Ezra Ward, and Jesse Anderson. 

Thirty-eight votes were cast in favor of the deliverance adopted 
by this Assembly, and twelve against it. 

The Assembly of 1865, at Evansville, Indiana, made no new de- 
liverance, but passed the following resolution : 

Resolved, That we are apprised that in all the States lately in re- 
bellion against the government of the United States, there will be dif- 
ficulties to encounter in re-organizing churches and presbyteries, on ac- 
count of the fact that many of our ministers and members have been in- 
volved in the rebellion; some perhaps willingly, and many from force 



404 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period v. 

of circumstances. Therefore we recommend to all our brethren in those 
States, in re-constructing the churches, to adopt the action of the last 
General Assembly, touching that matter, as a basis, believing that said 
action after showing true devotion to civil government, is according to 
the principles of God's holy word and our Confession of Faith, and that 
no further legislation is necessary on the subject. 

A full report has now been given of deliverances made by Assem- 
blies inaccessible to the Southern presbyteries. We are next to 
look at the action of the Southern Cumberland Presbyterian con- 
ventions. These conventions refused uniformly to give any deliver- 
ance on these questions. This was not because there was on the 
part of those composing them any lack of earnest conviction, nor 
because there was any less outside pressure on them than on the 
Assemblies. The convictions of rectitude, and the feeling against 
what was regarded the outrages of ' ' the enemy, ' ' were, if possible, 
even deeper with Southern than with Northern Christians. The 
pressure on the conventions for some ( ( deliverance ' ' condemning 
' ( the sectional usurpations of the Northern States, ' ' was very great. 
The Oxford Presbytery seceded from the denomination because the 
church still held to its "union with the enemy." Members in 
the extreme South were withdrawing for political reasons. 

When the Chattanooga convention met in 1863, there was one 
member who thought that the Southern churches would be com- 
pelled to yield to this outside pressure, and he moved that steps be 
taken in that direction. Then the Rev. W. M. Reed, a rebel col- 
onel, rose in his place and made a most thrilling speech. In sub- 
stance, among other things, he said : " They taunt us with treason. 
Very well. I^et those whose ecclesiastical skirts are red with the 
blood of this fratricidal war taunt on. I would rather go before my 
final Judge with our record than with theirs. Mr. Chairman, at 
this solemn hour, when Jehovah is dealing with our people, it is a 
source of unspeakable comfort to me that our church has always 
been conservative. The outside world demands that we come out. 
They call for deliverances. Well, sir, the whole manhood of our 
Southern churches is giving its deliverances, with muskets in the 
trenches, not on paper in church judicatures. Those who are not 
satisfied with the form of our deliverances, but ask in addition that 
we put Caesar above Christ, and rend Christ's body, in order to 



Chapter XXXVIII.] THE WAR RECORD. 405 

sliow our patriotism, are not entitled to our respect. We want to 
please God, not politicians. Mr. Chairman, let us wait, and pray, 
and hope. I believe our church will remain undivided, no matter 
what comes of this bitter civil struggle. ' ' 

When the vote . was taken not one single voice was heard in 
favor of the motion. Even its mover voted no. No such motion 
ever again came up in this or any subsequent convention held by 
Southern Cumberland Presbyterians. A persistent determination 
to avoid schism was both expressed and maintained. 

We are now to consider the deliverances adopted by the repre- 
sentatives of the two sections in General Assemblies held after the 
close of the war. The first Assembly in which Northern and South- 
ern delegates met after peace was established, was held at Owens- 
boro, Kentucky, May, 1866. This appointment, by Northern votes, 
to meet on Southern soil, looked like holding out the olive branch 
of peace. Still there were many fears of division. There were 
extreme men on both sides who wanted partisan action, but there 
were also many who were earnestly praying for the unity of the 
church. The question was, What shall be done about the deliver- 
ances of 1864? If they were enforced, some said, the Southern 
delegates would not be entitled to sit in the Assembly. The stated 
clerk, however, enrolled all the regularly commissioned Southern 
delegates. They were then, of course, largely in the majority. 

This Assembly of 1866 was the first in which the voices of all 
the presbyteries had a chance to be mingled into one expression. 
Its deliverance, which was written by the Rev. J. C. Provine, D. D. , 
then editor of the Banner of Peace, and offered by Milton Bird, 
was as follows: 

Whereas, According to the plain teaching of our Confession of 
Faith, u synods and councils are to handle and conclude nothing but that 
which is ecclesiastical, and are not to interfere with the affairs of the 
commonwealth;" and, 

Whereas, It is of momentous interest to the church to recog- 
nize practically, as well as in theory, the great truth taught by the 
Savior, viz.: That his kingdom is not of this world; therefore, 

Resolved, 1. That this General Assembly is opposed to every move- 
ment, coming from any quarter, that looks to a union of church and 
State. 



406 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period v. 

2. That we are opposed to the prostitution of the pulpit, the relig- 
ious press, or our ecclesiastical courts to the accomplishment of political 
and sectional purposes. 

3. That any expression of political sentiment made by any judica- 
tory of our church, north, south, east, or west, is unnecessary, and no 
part of the legitimate business of an ecclesiastical court. 

4. That nothing in the foregoing shall be construed into an expres- 
sion of opinion upon slavery and rebellion. 

There were 112 votes in favor of this deliverance, and 40 
against it. 

The next fall the Pennsylvania Synod passed the following 
resolutions asking the General Assembly to explain or modify this 
action: 

Whereas, The Cumberland Presbyterian church did, in the adop- 
tion of its form of government and discipline under the title of "The 
Form of Government and Discipline of the Cumberland Presbyterian 
church in these United States, under their care," recognize the duty of 
submission to the general government, as the supreme civil power; de- 
claring also that " they who, under pretense of Christian liberty, shall 
oppose any lawful power, or the lawful exercise of it, resist the ordi- 
nance of God," and that such persons " may lawfully be called to account 
and proceeded against by the censures of the church;" and, 

Whereas, The General Assembly of 1864, in the exercise of its de- 
clared authority for "reproving, warning, or bearing testimony against 
error in doctrine or immorality in practice," did declare those volunta- 
rily engaged in the late rebellion against the government of the United 
States to be guilty of great sin, and the General Assembly of 1865 re- 
affirmed this deliverance against the sin of rebellion; and 

Whereas, The late General Assembly which met at Owensboro, 
Kentucky, passed certain resolutions, sometimes styled the " final action," 
which are now claimed by many who voted for them to be, in effect, a 
repeal of the deliverances of 1864 in regard to the sin of rebellion; and, 

Whereas, These resolutions, from their own ambiguity as to their 
intended bearing on the deliverance of 1864, are the occasion of much 
difference of view as to their import, engendering strife and confusion, 
and threatening to divide the church; and, 

Whereas, The late General Assembly, which met at Owensboro, 
Ky., is considered by many of our people not to have been a constitu- 
tional Assembly, in that it admitted to seats, as is alleged, certain mem- 
bers who had not a constitutional right to membership in that body be- 
cause of the disorganized condition of the presbvteries from which they 



Chapter XXXVIII.] THE WAR RECORD. 407 

came, the action of the Assembly of 1865 respecting the re-organization 
of such presbyteries being, as it appears, entirely disregarded; therefore, 
Resolved, 1. That we respectfully memorialize the General As- 
sembly, to meet in 1867, and that it is hereby memorialized to investi- 
gate the question of the legality of the representation from disorgan- 
ized presbyteries in the General Assembly of 1866. 

2. That the action of the late Assembly is in effect a nullification of 
the deliverance of 1864, leaving the church without any record against 
the sins of slavery and rebellion, and justly chargeable with approving 
slavery and rebellion, both because it has nullified a deliverance against 
these sins, and because that nullification was demanded by its advocates 
on the ground that slavery is right in itself and that the rebellion was 
not wrong. 

3. That as a synod we hereby solemnly and unequivocally declare 
our adherence to the deliverence of 1864 against the sins of slavery and 
rebellion. 

4. That we hereby memorialize the General Assembly which is to 
meet in 1867 to declare unequivocally whether or not the deliverance of 
1864 still stands as the declared and unmodified position of the church 
on the question of slavery and rebellion. 

5. That should the next Assembly refuse to reaffirm the deliverance 
of 1864, or to adopt such an expression as will fairly and unequivocally 
recognize that deliverance, in its substance, as the record of the church 
against the sins of slavery and rebellion, that we will then, in common 
with others who adhere to that deliverance, claim to be the true Cum- 
berland Presbyterian church in the United States. 

This called forth from the Assembly of 1867, at Memphis, Ten- 
nessee, the following deliverance: 

Whereas, There exists some doubts about the bearing of the last 
General Assembly's utterances on those of former Assemblies on the 
subjects of slavery and rebellion; therefore, 

Resolved, That while the decisions of the General Assembly are of 
high authority, they can not become a law, binding upon all the churches, 
so as to set up a test of church membership, unless they are referred to 
the presbyteries, and there approved. Hence, such decisions are not sub- 
jects of repeal, and the decisions of last Assembly did not repeal the de- 
cisions of former Assemblies on the subjects above named, nor did 
they acknowledge their authority, but simply disclaimed all jurisdiction 
over such questions. 

There were only two dissenting voices to this resolution, and 
they afterward withdrew their opposition. So, with the full con- 



408 



Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period v. 



sent of all the Southern members, the deliverances of 1864 stand on 
the records as the opinion of all those who voted for them, and all 
who chose to conform to them. "Their moral force, whatever it may 
be, is not a subject for repeal. They are a part of the history of the 
times, and, like all other utterances, a part of the records which 
are to come before the last appellate court, when the final Judge as- 
sembles the universe to the last assizes. 

But some in Pennsylvania and elsewhere were still dissatisfied, 
and a memorial called up the subject in the Assembly of 1868, at 
Lincoln, Illinois. That Assembly adopted the following report: 

Your Committee on Overtures have had under serious and prayer- 
ful consideration a memorial, signed by a number of brethren of the 
ministry and eldership, asking of "your reverend body to declare and 
affirm the following propositions as the principles taught in our Confes- 
sion of Faith, and the word of God: 

" 1. That things secular and civil belong to the State. 

"2. That things moral and ecclesiastical belong to the church. 

"3. That in regard to things which are mixed, being partly secular 
and civil, and partly moral and ecclesiastical, the secular and civil as- 
pects belong to the State, but the moral and ecclesiastical aspects belong 
to the church. 

"4. That it is the prerogative of the church of Christ to sanction 
correct morals, to express its views through the pulpit, the press, and 
the various judicatures, on all moral questions, regardless of civil codes 
or political creeds." 

While your committee appreciate fully the sincerity and earnest de- 
sire of your memorialists, we can not recommend the adoption of the 
precise language of said memorial, as being in harmony with your Con- 
fession of Faith, and the word of God. At least it is so liable to miscon- 
struction that it would be unsafe as the form of a rule of practice. 

We respectfully recommend the adoption of the following answer 
to said memorial: 

1. The Confession of Faith is a much clearer statement of civil juris- 
diction than the first proposition of* the memorial. See chapter 23, sec- 
tion 3. " Civil magistrates may not assume to themselves the adminis- 
tration of the word and sacraments, or the powers of the keys of the 
kingdom of heaven; or in the least interfere in matters of faith. Yet as 
nursing fathers, it is the duty of civil magistrates to protect the church 
of our common Lord, without giving the preference to any denomina- 
tion of Christians above the rest, in such manner that all ecclesiastical 
persons whatever shall enjoy the full, free, and unquestioned liberty of 



Chapter XXXVIII.] THE WAR RECORD. 409 

discharging every part of their sacred functions, without violence or 
danger. And, as Jesus Christ hath appointed a regular government 
and discipline in his church, no law of any commonwealth should inter- 
fere with, let, or hinder the due exercise thereof among the voluntary 
members of any denomination of Christians, according to their own pro- 
fession and belief. It is the duty of civil magistrates to protect the per- 
son and good name of all their people in such an effectual manner as 
that no person be suffered, either upon pretense of religion or of infidel- 
ity, to offer any indignity, violence, abuse, or injury to any person what- 
soever, and to take order that all religious and ecclesiastical assemblies 
be held without molestation or disturbance." See also accompanying 
scripture, 2 Chron. xxvi. 18. 

2. Your committee are of opinion that the second proposition of the 
memorial is not respectful to the State, as a power ordained of God. 
For while the pulpit, press, and ecclesiastic courts have jurisdiction 
over all moral and ecclesiastic questions, there are many moral ques- 
tions over which the State has jurisdiction also. 

3. Many questions have arisen and doubtless will arise, which must 
be divided, the church considering and acting upon such parts of said 
questions as come within her jurisdiction. And while she is to be 
free and untrammeled in her teaching and adjudication, she must be wise 
and prudent, and will find ample instructions in her just and scriptural 
standards. See Confession of Faith, chapter 31, sections 2, 4. "It be- 
longeth to synods and councils, ministerially, to determine controver- 
sies of faith and cases of conscience, to set down rules and directions for 
the better ordering of the worship of God, and government of his 
church, to receive complaints in cases of mal-administration, and authori- 
tatively to determine the same; which decrees and determinations, if 
consonant with the word of God, are to be received with reverence and 
submission, not only for their agreement with the word, but also for the 
power whereby they are made, as being an ordinance of God, appoint- 
ed thereunto in his word." " Synods and councils are to handle or con- 
clude nothing but that which is ecclesiastical; and are not to intermeddle 
with civil affairs, which concern the commonwealth; unless by way of 
humble petition, in cases extraordinary, or by way of advice for sat- 
isfaction of conscience, if they be thereunto required by the civil magis- 
trate." See also Luke xii. 13, 14; John xviii. 36. Also, Form of Gov- 
ernment, chapter 7, section 2. "These assemblies ought not to possess 
any civil jurisdiction, nor to inflict any civil penalties. Their power is 
wholly moral and spiritual, and that only ministerial and declarative. 
They possess the right of requiring obedience to the laws of Christ, and 
of excluding the disobedient and disorderly from the privileges of the 
church." 



4io 



Cumberland Presbyterian History. 



[Period V. 



4. Your committee agree fully with your memorialists in the expres- 
sions of the fourth proposition, except the phrase, "of civil codes." 
Your committee are of opinion, that while it is the prerogative and duty 
of the church to reprove and rebuke sin, and approve and establish all 
righteousness and true holiness, she should not put herself in an attitude 
of defiance, or disregard for the civil laws of the land. 

This was the last action on the war issues, and seems to have 
given universal satisfaction. 

Before closing this chapter it seems proper to speak briefly of 
the relations of Cumberland Presbyterians to slavery. Though the 
church had its origin in a slave State, and though its greatest 
strength has always been in the South, yet the author of this book 
never knew an extreme pro-slavery man among its members. 
There were doubtless some before the war who believed that slavery 
was justifiable; but most of these looked upon it as a means of edu- 
cating the negro and preparing him for ultimate freedom, and all 
held that it was a solemn duty to labor for the spiritual salvation of 
the slaves. Much the larger number believed slavery to be an evil 
and a curse which had been at first thrust upon the people without 
their consent, and against their protest, and then handed down 
from father to son. But they denied their responsibility for the 
deeds of a past generation. They believed in restoring the negro 
to his rights, but they held that the whole case, with all its sur- 
rounding facts, should be considered, and that method of resto- 
ration selected which promised the least mischief and the largest ad- 
vantages to both races. Many advocated the gradual colonization 
of the slaves in Liberia, or elsewhere. Nearly all admitted that 
there were under the existing laws, cases in which humanity and 
religion both made it necessary to hold men in bondage, and that 
in such cases, if the slaves were properly treated, there was no sin 
involved. But a majority of our people, South as well as North, 
would have rejoiced to see all the negroes peacefully emancipated. 

Of the three ministers who organized the first presbytery of the 
Cumberland Presbyterien church, Ewing was the only one who 
owned slaves, and he emancipated them,' 1 Besides this noble act, 
he also boldly wrote and preached against "the traffic in human 

x The laws Avhere he lived pennitted that to be done. 



Chapter XXXVIII.] THE WAR RECORD. 411 

flesh.. ' ' He lived all his days in the slave States, and was the lead- 
ing spirit in the first generation of Cumberland Presbyterians. In 
a published sermon 2 he says: 

But where shall we begin? O is it indeed true that in this enlight- 
ened age, there are so many palpable evils in the church that it is diffi- 
cult to know where to commence enumerating them? The first evil 
which I will mention is a traffic in human flesh and human souls. It is 
true that many professors of religion, and I fear some of my Cumber- 
land brethren, do not scruple to sell for life their fellow-beings, some of 
whom are brethren in the Lord. • And what is worse, they are not 
scrupulous to whom they sell, provided they can obtain a better price. 
Sometimes husbands and wives, parents and children are thus separated, 
and I doubt not their cries reach the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. . . . 
Others who constitute a part of the visible church half feed, half clothe, 
and oppress their servants. Indeed, they seem by their conduct toward 
them, not to consider them fellow-beings. And it is to be feared that 
many of them are taking no pains at all to give their servants religious 
instruction of any kind, and especially are they making no effort^ to 
teach them or cause them to be taught to read that Book which testifies 
of Jesus, whilst others permit, perhaps require, their servants to work, 
cook, etc., while the white people are praying around the family altar. 

The church papers also contained many communications of a 
similar character from his pen. .He says: 

I have determined not to hold, 3 nor to give, nor to sell, nor to buy 
any slave for life. Mainly from the influence of that passage of God's 
word which says, "Masters give unto your servants that which is just 
and equal." 

McAdow was not an aggressive man, but he was thoroughly 
opposed to slavery; and, lest his own family should become in- 
volved in it, he moved away from Tennessee to Illinois. While 
always charitable toward Southern people, he hesitated not to 
speak out against the institution which so long oppressed the 
country. 

That there were individual members of our church that may 
have been guilty of all the unholy practices which Finis Ewing 
here condemns is not called in question. There have also been 
members of all churches guilty of adultery and of other great crimes, 

2 Life and Times of Ewing, page 273. 3 lb. 



4i3 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period v. 

but that is a very different thing from advocating and defending 
such crimes. 

Some Cumberland Presbyterian preachers who inherited slaves 
were greatly perplexed to know what was their duty. Ephraim 
McLean, the first minister that was ordained in the church, be- 
lieved his negroes incapable of freedom, yet desired to be rid of 
slave-holding. He laid out a farm, built a house, gave his negroes 
stock and tools and told them to go free. In a few years, drunk- 
enness and idleness brought them to suffering, and they came to 
McLean, begging him to take them back, which he did. J 

Robert Donnell puts on record a prayer and a vow, 2 in which 
he asks the Lord to let him know what is his duty in regard to the 
negroes, whom he has inherited; and he solemnly promises, no 
matter what the sacrifice, faithfully to perform the Lord's bidding. 
During his whole life he gathered all his servants at family prayers 
daily ; and spent a season in instructing them in spiritual things. 
His negroes were unwilling to be sent away to Liberia. The laws 
of his own State did not allow emancipated slaves to remain 
there. In just such straits were thousands of conscientious men 
who became slave owners without their own consent. Some kept 
up the outward appearance of saintliness by selling the poor negroes, 
perhaps to heartless slave drivers, but a far better class did as Don- 
nell did; kept the negroes and treated them as a Christian should. 
Donnell's overseer used regularly to complain that Donnell stood 
between him and the negroes under his charge, and kept the whole 
plantation waiting morning and evening for his protracted family 
worship. 

In Dr. Beard's diary I find many antislavery records. He de- 
clares it to be his opinion that his negroes (inherited) were inca- 
pable of taking care of themselves. He thinks them a trust com- 
mitted to his hands for whom he will be held responsible as much as 
for his own minor children. July nth, 1855, he makes this entry: 
4 'About ten o' clock word came to me that one of my servants, who 
is hired out, was lying out. This is one of the curses of slavery, 
and the longer I live the more deeply I regret that I ever became 

1 Items furnished by Hon. F. E. McLean. 

2 Donnell's manuscript to be filed in Cumberland University. 



Chapter XXXVIII.] THE WAR RECORD. 413 

involved in it. My heart always hated it, and now loathes it more 
and more every day." 

There were many cases in which the demands of humanity and 
religion forced antislavery men living South to become slave 
owners. Take one case. A Southern preacher of the Cumberland 
Presbyterian church, who had resolved never to become mixed up 
with the curse, saw the day when his own father's slaves were levied 
on for his father's debts. These negroes were the playmates of his 
childhood. His old father was heart-broken about the matter. 
While this preacher had money enough to pay for the negroes, he 
did not have enough to meet any thing like all his father's debts. 
To pay out what money he had on these debts and leave the negroes 
still the property of his father would leave them to fall again into 
the hands of the sheriff and the negro trader. The horror with 
which slaves generally regarded negro traders passes all description. 
In this case the laws of the State did not allow the emancipation of 
slaves unless they could be taken out of the State. These negroes 
were consulted, and declared that they would rather die than be 
taken away, either to Canada or Liberia. What they longed for 
and prayed for was to be allowed to remain with their old master. 
So the preacher bought them and left them living in their old home 
with his parents, where they remained till the end of the war, and 
longer too. This case, which is no fiction, is a typical one. Many 
Southern men similarly situated, are now, with a quiet conscience, 
awaiting the awards of the last solemn tribunal. 

From 1830 to 1836 our church paper at Nashville not only de- 
nounced slavery and the rigid legislation of some of the Southern 
States, but it was also fiercely attacked by the political papers of the 
South on this account. The paper was the Revivalist. Some ex- 
tracts will show what was its attitude on this question. Lowry, 
Smith, and Anderson all wrote editorials for it. 

SHAMEFUL LEGISLATION. 

The legislature of South Carolina, at its last session, enacted a law 
imposing a fine of not more than one hundred dollars, and imprison- 
ment not more than six months, upon any person who shall be found 
guilty of teaching a slave to read or write! Or if a free person of color 
be convicted of the like crime, he must be whipped not exceeding fifty 



414 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period v. 

lashes, and fined not more than fifty dollars! It further provides, that 
any person employing a man of color as a salesman or clerk, shall be 
subject to a fine of one hundred dollars and six months' imprisonment! 
Such enactments are foul blots upon the records of a free people, which 
our posterity will blush to behold. They are not only unjust and cruel 
but actually impolitic — such laws do not even deserve the name of time- 
serving policy. We are aware that the notion prevails to some extent 
that it diminishes the value of a slave to teach him to read; and some are 
so credulous as to believe that religious instruction, yea, the possession of 
the spirit of Christ, will injure slaves. Those who entertain the latter sen- 
timent, it will be granted, are themselves ignorant — grossly ignorant — 
of the nature and tendency of the religion of Christ, and we must think 
that those who oppose teaching servants to read the Bible and other re- 
ligious books, are equally ignorant of the influence of such instruction 
upon their minds. The extensive slave-holder is at too great a remove 
from the slave to learn the workings of his mind and the feelings of his 
heart. There is no contact of feeling, no interchange of sympathies 
between most Southern planters and their servants. They govern, con- 
trol, and direct their labors by proxy; and too many masters are depend- 
ent upon the representations of heartless overseers for a knowledge 
of the character and disposition of their own slaves. Southern planters 
who govern by proxy, are, therefore, unprepared to do justice to the 
African character. Men who have, through life, been in more imme- 
diate contact with the slave, are better qualified to render an impartial 
judgment. And, notwithstanding all that has been or may be said or en- 
acted to the contrary, from long acquaintance with educated and uned- 
ucated slaves, from experience in imparting instruction, from extensive 
observation, from all the facts we have been enabled to collect, we are 
fully persuaded that ability to read, and especially a disposition therewith 
to read the Scriptures, so far from diminishing, adds to the value of a 
slave. 

This position is tenable from principles of sound reason. Any gen- 
tleman wishing to purchase a slave with the design of retaining him as 
a servant, would give ten per cent, more for one of good moral charac- 
ter, in whose integrity he could confide, than he would for another 
possessing equal bodily powers and dexterity, yet destitute of- moral 
character. Well, what is so well calculated to improve and mature the 
morals as ability and disposition to read the volume of inspiration, and 
other religious books? It would be most impious infidelity to deny the 
adaptedness of divine truth to induce and confirm moral habits. In fact 
it is the only antidote to corruption, the only conservator of personal or 
public morals; and as slaves are most exposed at least to certain descrip- 
tions of vice, they most need its restraining and conservative influence. 



Chapter XXXVIII.] THE War RECORD. 415 

Teach your slaves to read, and give them moral and religious in- 
struction, and they will not only be better men but better servants. We 
speak what we know, and have seen demonstrated by actual experi- 
ment, and in the assertion we are sustained by reason and revelation. 
To assume the opposite is a departure from reason, and an approach to 
infidelity. If indeed slavery is incompatible with the ability and privi- 
lege of reading the Scriptures and receiving religious instruction, then it 
is as heinous in the sight of Heaven as idolatry or priestcraft. No cir- 
cumstances whatever can justify the master in withholding from his 
servants a knowledge of the Scriptures; wherein alone life and immortal- 
ity are brought to light. Doubtless, it was for this very purpose that 
God, in the depth of his councils, suffered the poor African to be brought 
into bondage, intending by the subjection of his person to bring him 
under the influence of the gospel, and thereby free his immortality from 
the dark cloisters of gross superstition, and if so, woe to that man or 
legislature that denies the African the light and hope of the gospel. If 
you would not provoke the God of heaven to entail upon us worse than 
Egyptian plagues, and lead out the oppressed by the hand of a second 
Moses, do n't withhold from the African religious instruction. 

I^ater the same paper contained the following: 

THE GOSPEL CAN NOT INJURE SLAVES. 

Some time since, we published, without note or comment, a com- 
munication from a "Mississippi Planter," calling for a reputable evan- 
gelical preacher, of any denomination, to be sent to that State, to itiner- 
ate and preach the gospel to the slave population. The planter pledged 
himself for fifty dollars, and gave some assurance that five hundred 
could be raised for the support of such a missionary. We find the said 
communication in a recent number of the Western Weekly Review, pre- 
ceded by the following editorial: 

SLAVERY MOVEMENTS AT HOME. 

"We quote the following article from the Nashville Revivalist for 
the purpose of raising a warning voice against the proposed measure. 
Far be it from us to say aught against the diffusing of light and intelli- 
gence, or against ameliorating the condition of any of our species, but 
let it be remembered that there is a time and place for all things; and 
circumstances to be considered in all cases. The "Mississippi planters" 
have no desire to see the terrible tragedies of St. Domingo and South- 
ampton re-enacted amongst themselves; and to such a result the mission 
proposed below must inevitably lead. We speak what we know." 

We think that, for once, the editor of the Review has gone a little 
too far and spoken more than he " knows." How does he " know " that 



416 



Cumberland Presbyterian History. 



[Period V. 



the " proposed mission " would " inevitably lead " to such results in 
Mississippi as the " terrible tragedies of St. Domingo and Southamp- 
ton?" Does he "know" that the gospel of peace will produce strife, 
excite discontent and rebellion? Will that gospel which teaches serv- 
ants to obey their masters, prompt them to rebellion? Were the terri- 
ble tragedies of St. Domingo and Southampton the results of the gos- 
pel? Does not universal experience prove that when a slave becomes 
truly pious, he is ever afterward a more obedient servant than he was 
before. Does not the editor of the Review know that missions among 1 
the slave population in South Carolina and Georgia have been and are 
now being attended by the best of consequences? That the slave-hold- 
ers in those States testify to their good effects upon the slaves, and 
that such missions have received their decided approbation? Many 
Southern planters have erected meeting-houses for their slaves, and so- 
licit preaching every Sabbath, or as often as they can procure the serv- 
ices of the missionaries. The editor does not " know " that preaching 
the gospel to the slaves in Mississippi will lead to such results as the 
tragedies of St. Domingo and Southampton. We believe he is sincere, 
but think his fears have outrun his knowledge, and therefore he has 
been induced to lift up his " warning voice." We apprehend no such 
bloody results, but believe that the gospel is the best and only sure pre- 
ventive of rebellion; and in our estimation the Mississippi planters would 
promote their own interests and security by employing all judicious 
means to evangelize the slave population. 

The Cumberland Presbyterian, of Nashville, Tennessee, August 
19, 1835, says: "We proclaim it abroad we do not own slaves. 
We never shall. We long to see the black man free and happy, 
and thousands of Christians who now hold them in bondage enter- 
tain the same sentiments. ' ' The same editor constantly advocated 
gradual emancipation, and urged on masters the duty of prepar- 
ing their servants for freedom. 

It is proper, however, to state that all these things underwent 
great changes after slavery entered into the bitter political strug- 
gles of the country. Just what the feelings or views of Cumber- 
land Presbyterians were during the years just preceding the war, or 
what their relations were to the bitter political questions of the 
times, this history does not undertake to discuss. Two of the Gen- 
eral Assemblies held during the period named, one at Memphis, 
Tennessee, in 1848, and the other at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, in 
1851, adopted reports directly relating to slavery, and these two 



Chapter XXXVIII.] THE WAR RECORD. 417 

deliverances perhaps indicate what was at that time the prevailing 
sentiment of our people. 

The action of 1848 was called out by the minutes of the Penn- 
sylvania Synod. That Synod, at its meeting in 1847, had rescinded 
u a resolution passed at the preceding session declaring the relation 
existing between the synod and American slavery to be such as 
required her to take no action thereon," and had proceeded to take 
action in these words. 

Resolved, That the system of slavery in the United States is contrary 
to the principles of the gospel, hinders the progress thereof, and ought 
to be abolished. 

The synodical minutes containing the resolution came up in the 
Assembly of 1848 for review, and were referred to a committee, 
consisting of the Rev. Hiram A. Hunter, of Kentucky, the Rev. A. 
H. Goodpasture, of Illinois, and Ruling Elder J. S. McLean, of 
Tennessee. This committee's report, which was concurred in by 
the Assembly, expressed regret at the synod's action, and disap- 
probation of "any attempt by judicatures of the church to agitate 
the exciting subject of slavery," closing with these words : " The 
tendency of such resolutions, if persisted in, we believe is to gender 
strife, produce distraction in the church, and thereby hinder the 
progress of the gospel. x 

In the General Assembly of 185 1 " the moderator announced the 
reception of six memorials from persons residing in Ohio and Penn- 
sylvania, numbering, in the aggregate, about one hundred and fifty, 
upon the subject of slavery." 2 The Committee on Overtures, to 
which these memorials were referred, submitted the following 
report : 3 

The church of God is a spiritual body, whose jurisdiction extends 
only to matters of faith and morals. She has no power to legislate upon 
subjects on which Christ and his apostles did not legislate, nor to estab- 
lish terms of union, where they have given no express warrant. Your 
committee, therefore, believe that this question on which you are asked 
by the memorialists to take action, is one which belongs rather to civil 
than ecclesiastical legislation ; and we are fully persuaded that legisla- 
tion on that subject in any of the judicatories of the church, instead of 

1 Assembly's Minutes, 1848, pp. 12, 13. 3 Ib. 1851, p. 16. 3 lb. pp. 56, 57. 



418 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period v. 

mitigating the evils connected with slavery, will only have a tendency 
to alienate feeling between brethren; to engender strifes and animosi- 
ties in your churches; and tend, ultimately to a separation between breth- 
ren who hold a common faith, an event leading to the most disastrous 
results, and one which we believe ought to be deprecated by every true 
patriot and Christian. 

But your committee believe that members of* the church holding 
slaves should regard them as rational and accountable beings, and treat 
them as such, affording them as far as possible the means of grace. 
Finally, your committee would recommend the adoption of the following 
resolutions: 

Resolved, i. That inasmuch as the Cumberland Presbyterian church 
was originally organized and has ever since existed and prospered 
under the conceded principle that slavery was not and should not be 
regarded as a bar to communion ; we, therefore, believe that it should 
not now be so regarded. 

2. That, having entire confidence in the honesty and sincerity of the 
memorialists, and cherishing the tenderest regard for their feelings and 
opinions, it is the conviction of this General Assembly that the agitation 
of this question, which has already torn in sunder other branches of the 
church, can be productive of no real benefit to master or slave. We 
would, therefore, in the fear of God, and with the utmost solicitude for 
the peace and welfare of the churches under our care, advise a spirit 
of mutual forbearance and brotherly love; and, instead of censure and 
proscription, that we endeavor to cultivate a fraternal feeling one toward 
another. 

The members of the committee, all of whom signed the report, 
were: the Rev. LeRoy Woods, of Indiana; the Rev. A. J. Baird, 
of Kentucky; the Rev. J. J. Meek, of Mississippi ; the Rev. N. P. 
Modrall, of Tennessee; the Rev. J. H. Coulter, of Ohio; the Rev. 
S. B. Hudson, of Pennsylvania; and Ruling Elder J. C. Henson, 
of Indiana. 

As to the present attitude of our people in regard to the now 
old and thrice-dead slavery issue, the writer does not know a Cum- 
berland Presbyterian of any section who is not heartily glad that 
the negro is free. 

The fact that the church did not divide, even in those bitter 
times, when all the other Protestant churches of America were rent 
asunder, speaks with great power in favor of the Christian and con- 
servative spirit of our people. The Cumberland Presbyterian 



Chapter XXXVIII.] THE WAR RECORD. 419 

church is now, was during the war, and we trust will always be, 
national, not sectional; and it has to-day no members who look with 
more pride on our ecclesiastical unity than do those who fought 
under Lee and Bragg in 1863. 

In one view of the case the church is specially indebted to its 
Southern membership for this unity. Most of the strength of the 
church was in the South, and neither in members nor church prop- 
erty would Southern Cumberland Presbyterians have been very 
great losers by setting up an independent establishment as the 
Southern Presbyterians did ; but there were other things which they 
prized far more than members or property. One thing more is 
claimed to their special credit. When they were in the majority in 
the Assembly, and able to carry things their own way, they unani- 
mously granted terms to our Northern membership, such as the 
Southern wing of the Presbyterian church has steadfastly refused to 
accept from Northern Presbyterians. At no time in the last fifteen 
years would the Presbyterian church have continued to be rent asun- 
der, had the Southern wing thereof declared its willingness to 
accept a similar compromise. 



4-20 



Cumberland Presbyterian History. 



[Period V. 



CHAPTER XXXIX 



PREACHING TO SOLDIERS. 

"Like Him, through scenes of deep distress, 
Who bore the world's sad weight, 
We, in their crowded loneliness, 
Would seek the desolate." 

THIS book has little to do with military records, but the 
history of the work of Cumberland Presbyterians for the 
salvation of souls, whether in Northern or Southern armies, 
ought to be interesting to us all. The man whose soul is too 
narrow to believe in a conversion because it was in the army which 
he called "the enemy," would do well to pass over this chapter. 
God loved the souls of men, whether they wore blue coats or gray, 
and who can doubt that there were earnest Christian men in both 
armies who fell in battle and winged their flight to heaven 
together? The heroism of Americans from both sections has 
become part of our common national heritage of glory. 

The principal strength of our church lay in the South, and almost 
all the men in that section went to the army. Nearly all the youthful 
ministers from one section, and only a few comparatively from the 
other, marched with the soldiers during the four years of civil 
strife. There was, therefore, a much larger number of Cumberland 
Presbyterian chaplains in the Southern than in the Northern army. 
Of the services of the latter, only a meager account can now be 
obtained. It will, therefore, require more space to sketch the work 
of Southern than that of Northern chaplains. The limits of this 
volume do not permit the description of all the worthy actors, or 
important events. Only selections, and not a full history, can be 
given. 

In one single Southern army — Bragg' s — there were twenty Cum- 
berland Presbyterian chaplains. All the other Southern armies 



Chapter XXXIX.] PREACHING TO SOLDIERS. 421 

also had a considerable number. So far as the personal history of 
these men is known, they were every one faithful in the perilous 
duties which they had undertaken. Much of the material which 
has been collected for a history of their work can not be used in 
this short chapter. 

No army missionaries were sent out by our church Boards of 
Missions. There might have been embarrassing questions attend- 
ing any such an effort at that time. There was, however, a mis- 
sionary committee in the South, organized after the war began, for 
the special purpose of prosecuting missionary work among the 
Southern soldiers. In the North the Christian Commission super- 
seded the necessity for any special denominational organization for 
this kind of missionary effort. In both sections there was earnest 
work done by the Cumberland Presbyterian church for the evan- 
gelization of the soldiers. 

The call to preach to a regiment was sometimes made by the 
colonel, and sometimes by the united voice of the men composing 
the regiment. There were two very different methods pursued in 
taking converts into the church. The Northern chaplains and the 
chaplains in I^ee's army had what they called an "Army Church." 
All except Catholics and Episcopalians co-operated in this organ- 
ization. Converts became members in this undenominational 
church. "The Army of Tennessee" had a different arrangement. 
If there were under the charge of a Cumberland Presbyterian chap- 
lain converts who wanted to join the Baptists, he sent for a Baptist 
chaplain to come and baptize them. Their names, with a certifi- 
cate of the facts, were then sent to the home congregation. So of 
the adherents of all other churches, except Roman Catholics and 
Episcopalians. These generally refused to co-operate with the 
other chaplains. 

The programme for work among the soldiers had to be shaped 
to meet the nature of the case. If a chaplain was a true man, he 
was to all intents the pastor of his regiment. All the spiritual 
oversight and care of persons which any pastor ever had at home, 
fell to his lot. He visited the messes. He held prayer-meetings 
for the regiment He held private conferences with individuals 
about their spiritual interests. He distributed tracts and books. 



422 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period v. 

He preached at regular times. But there were other spheres of duty 
peculiar to his station. During a battle his usual place was at the 
field hospital, or along with the litter corps, who carried the 
wounded back to the field hospital. To take down from the lips 
of the dying their last message to loved ones was a large part of 
his work in the midst of a battle. To point suffering and dying 
comrades to the Friend who was wounded for our transgressions 
was a still larger part of his work on those fields of blood. Then 
the chaplains had another and broader field of operations. There 
were chaplains' associations, where all consulted together about the 
general interests of the work. These associations had regular 
officers and regular meetings ; and ministers of our own church 
took a prominent part in nearly all of them. The permanent 
chairman in the very largest of these associations was a Cumber- 
land Presbyterian. Another duty which some of the chaplains felt 
called upon to fulfill, was to preach against u official sins " — not 
the sins of "the enemy, " but the sins of their own generals, and 
even of the official head of the government which they recognized. 
In the South, at least, there were instances in which Cumberland 
Presbyterian chaplains took such a bold k stand in the presence of 
the very parties arraigned, that their friends expected to see them 
put under arrest or punished in some still severer manner. On one 
such occasion, after the chaplain had boldly denounced, in the 
presence of all the leading generals of " the Army of Tennessee,' ' 
some of the official sins of those very generals, and had taken his 
seat in the pulpit, General Iyeonidas Polk rose to his feet, walked 
up to the pulpit, seized the chaplain by the hand, and said, with 
deep feeling : " Sir, I thank you for your fidelity this day." 

It was next to impossible for a chaplain to do denominational 
work in the camps. A few tried it and came to grief. The soldiers 
would not tolerate any man who undertook sectarian work among 
them. No other work of the churches, not even missions to the 
heathen, has ever been more efficient in breaking down sectarian 
feeling. Two chaplains had worked side by side for twelve months 
when one of them, a Cumberland Presbyterian, learned with sur- 
prise that the other was a New School Presbyterian ; up to that 
time he had thought his companion a Methodist. A chaplain 



Chapter XXXIX.] PREACHING TO SOLDIERS. 423 

(Cumberland Presbyterian) was sent for by a wealthy lady of the 
Episcopalian church. Her words to him were substantially these : 
" I have seen the time when I would have preferred risking the 
death of my boy out of the church to having him placed under the 
instruction of any minister who is not an Episcopalian ; but I have 
got past that. My son is in your regiment. I am looking daily to 
hear of his falling in battle. He is not ready to die. I want you 
to see him and talk to him about his soul's salvation, and I ask you 
to press the matter upon him at once. ' ' 

Some samples of the work of Cumberland Presbyterian ministers 
in connection with the Union armies are presented first. The Rev. 
A. W. White and the Rev. G. N. Mattox, of Pennsylvania, spent 
a brief period working under the United States Christian Commis- 
sion. Their brief services produced very valuable results. It is 
recorded of these two men that, among other good deeds, they inter- 
posed to prevent mistreatment of prisoners. They preached Jesus 
to prisoners as well as to the soldiers in blue. At Decatur, Ala- 
bama, they secured a room and raised their flag. Here they held 
regular prayer-meetings with good results. There were inquirers 
after the way of salvation, and conversions in considerable numbers 
in this room under the preaching of these missionaries. Mr. White 
mentions with gratitude the fact that those who had been out on 
picket duty came in and reported at the prayer-meeting that a great 
revival was going on at the same time in the Confederate army. 
Thus God was at work on both sides of the hostile lines. 

One day Mr. Mattox found in the hospital a little boy whose 
right shoulder was shattered by a piece of shell. Talking with 
this child about his soul, he soon learned that the boy had run 
away from a Christian mother in Vermont. Mattox prayed with 
him and labored for him till he saw bright evidences of conversion. 
The child's first desire then was that Mattox should write the good 
news to his mother. This was done. For a wonder the boy recov- 
ered apparently, and for a while made a hearty worker for the souls 
of other soldiers. He then relapsed and died, and his death oc- 
curred about the same time that Mattox also sickened and died. 
This was the introduction to a warm correspondence between the 
boy's mother, in Vermont, and the preacher's mother, in Pennsyl- 



424 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period v. 

vania. A volume might be filled with similar incidents. In many 
cases, too, the parties who were brought into communication by 
such incidents belonged to different sides of the great contest. 
Among Dr. Beard's literary remains are several intensely interest- 
ing letters of this class. 

A curious thing about Mattox is that he had felt himself specially 
called to the work of a foreign missionary. It does not detract any 
thing from our confidence in the divine origin of the call, to see 
that God himself thwarted its accomplishment. God called Abra- 
ham to offer up Isaac, but God never intended to let Abraham carry 
the work farther than a certain fixed point. God calls men to 
preach, and sometimes takes them home to heaven before they de- 
liver their first sermon. 

Chaplain A. G. Osborn, of Pennsylvania, published a letter ad- 
dressed to Union Presbytery, from which this extract is made: 

I can, through the mercy of God, my dear brethren, assure you that 
the great Head of the church has not left himself without witnesses 
even here, amid army scenes and battle strife. During nearly the whole 
of this winter there have been reviving influences in our camps. About 
three hundred persons have professed faith in Christ. I can say that a 
great change has taken place in my own regiment. Our camp, it is true, 
has a great deal of wickedness in it yet; but, thank the Lord, many who 
but recently were numbered among blasphemers and Sabbath-breakers, 
are now enrolled among the names constituting our regimental church, 
or "Christian League," as it is more fitly denominated. One remark- 
able feature in the case is the fact that nearly every one in the Four- 
teenth Regiment that has made a profession, has taken up the cross, 
and prays in public. I know of but one or two exceptions. We now 
have a chapel tent erected. The Christian commission on my applica- 
tion, furnished the canvas to cover it, and our soldiers labored with a 
good will to get it built. It is comfortably seated, and has a stove in it. 
There has been meeting in it nearly every night since it was built, and 
every Sabbath we have two services. A. G. Osborn, 

Chaplain Fourteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry. 
Martinsburg, West Virginia, March 21, 1864. 

The Rev. H. H. Ashmore served long and faithfully as chaplain 
in an Illinois regiment. He furnishes some interesting incidents. 
He says that in all the protracted intercourse with Cumberland 
Presbyterians, which the long sojourn of his regiment in the South 



Chapter XXXIX.J PRKACHING TO SOLDIERS. 425 

enabled him to hold, he met with no one of them who did not ear- 
nestly desire the preservation of the ecclesiastical unity of the church. 
That his observations on this subject were in keeping with the 
general facts in the case will be seen from the proceedings of the 
conventions discussed in a former chapter. This fact, and that 
other precious fact that we stood undivided through the war which 
rent other churches asunder, is a valuable proof of the power of 
that spiritual legacy which has always constituted our noblest de- 
nominational heritage. It was Milton Bird who, in a sermon in 
1864, after pointing out the evils of disruption, uttered the follow- 
ing noble words : " If, on the other hand, we can show to the world 
a church which is able through divine grace to rise above all the 
passions of this furious war, and stand bound together in holy unity 
by a divine bond which no national strife can sunder, then truly 
may we put forth an argument for the divinity of Christianity which 
infidelity can not overthrow. ' ' 

At the Rattle of Pea Ridge, Arkansas, Chaplain Ash more was 
worn down by work with wounded men. L,ate at night, utterly 
exhausted, he sank down upon a log, rested his head upon what he 
supposed was a fallen limb of a tree, and sank to sleep. On awak- 
ing in the morning, he found that his pillow was the amputated 
leg of some poor soldier. Ashmore testifies that the dying soldiers, 
however wicked they had been in life, died calling on the name of 
God. ' ' My mother, " "my wife, ' > " my country, ' ' "my God, ' > 
Were the words oftenest on the dying lips of those over whose last 
moments the army chaplains kept watch. 

While Ashmore' s regiment was at Murfreesboro, Tennessee, 
some very sore trials pressed upon the chaplains. They met to- 
gether once to consult about disbanding and going home in a body, 
but the proposition was not carried out. Instead of going home 
they began a series of meetings. God blessed their efforts. A re- 
vival began and spread far through that portion of the army. Ash- 
more was an active worker in this revival, and it was estimated 
that one thousand persons were converted before this series of meet- 
ings closed. 

The venerable Hiram A. Hunter, who had been a member of 
General Andrew Jackson's body-guard in the war of 181 2, and was 



426 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period v. 

in his sixty-first year when the late civil war began, was a chap- 
lain in the Federal army. Neither in his diary nor in his very full 
autobiography (MSS.) does he give any details of his work as chap- 
lain, except the texts he used, and the dates of certain transactions. 

The Rev. J. W. Woods served as chaplain of the Fifth Illinois 
Regiment from September, 1861, till the close of the war. Like 
many others he was regularly elected by the men of the regiment 
before receiving any military appointment. For several months he 
was detailed to special work among the colored people who flocked 
to the army. He diligently circulated Bibles, tracts, and papers 
among the soldiers, besides doing all the other regular work usually 
done by chaplains. He was with his regiment at Vicksburg, and 
his labors there resulted in many conversions. Three of these con- 
verts afterward entered the ministry. 

The Rev. S. Richards, D. D. , was also chaplain throughout the 
war, but no account of his labors has been secured. 

As to the work in the Southern army, a few selections carefully 
made are here presented in order to illustrate different features of 
that work. A large volume would be needed to furnish a full history. 

About the time the chaplains of the army under General Rose- 
crans were consulting as to the propriety of disbanding and going 
home, the chaplains in Bragg' s army were in consultation over the 
same kind of a proposition. A meeting of all the chaplains in that 
army had been called to consider the question of resigning and 
going home en masse. The feeling was quite common that war 
and religion were incompatible, and that no good could be accom- 
plished by preaching to soldiers. A few of the chaplains responded 
to the call. After the proposition to abandon the chaplains' work 
had been made and discussed for a few minutes, the Rev. Mr. Mil- 
ligan, of the Baptist Church, offered some resolutions to the follow- 
ing effect: 

Resolved, I. That the souls of this vast multitude are too precious 
to be abandoned to perdition. 

2. That God is able to give his own called ministers the victory even 
among soldiers. 

3. That the chaplains should enter into a covenant to pray for each 
other, and that all should at once begin protracted meetings in their 
several regiments, claiming this whole army for the King of kings. 



Chapter XXXIX.] PREACHING TO SOLDIERS. 427 

These resolutions were adopted. One week from that day the 
chaplains met again to report results. The number present was 
much larger than on the former occasion. The bowed heads were 
lifted up. Every chaplain who had entered into the covenant one 
week before, reported that a revival had already begun in his regi- 
ment. This work of grace went on till the armies of the Confed- 
eracy were disbanded. 

One of these chaplains was the Rev. George L. Winchester, of 
the Madison Presbytery, of our church. He was eminently fitted 
for a chaplain's work. After entering into this covenant, he went 
back to his regiment and began his series of meetings. The next 
week he reported a wonderful revival in progress, with great demand 
for more preaching. Various regiments were destitute of chaplains. 
Winchester began a series of sendees in one of these, besides con- 
tinuing the meetings in his own regiment. Forgetting that his 
body was mortal, or ceasing to care for its mortality, he carried on 
this double service for a considerable time, until, in the midst of 
his labors, he suddenly fell and was gone to heaven before his fellow 
chaplains knew that he was ill. His regiment was like a family of 
orphans, mourning a father's death. Nearly all of them had been 
led to Jesus by Winchester. When they selected a new chaplain 
the principal point was to find a man whom Winchester had loved 
and indorsed. 

An exchanged prisoner who had belonged to that regiment re- 
turned to it after Winchester's death. He took out his deck of 
cards, and went to some of his old companions to have a game. 
They all declined, stating that they had become Christians. He 
went to others with the same result. He made the trial in every 
mess of the whole regiment, without finding a single one to join 
him. With a bitter oath he said: "The whole regiment has got 
religion." 

Mention has been made of the Cumberland Presbyterian South- 
ern Committee, on army missions. This committee resolved to 
raise a salary to secure a general missionary for " the Army of Ten- 
nessee, ' ' to whose hands they might commit a sort of supervision 
of missionary work among the soldiers. Three failures were made 
before a suitable man was obtained; and finally one of the chaplains 



428 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period v. 

was induced to resign and take this missionary work instead of his 
chaplaincy. Under his management, after he entered on this gen- 
eral work, money was raised to secure the Rev. J. L,. Cooper, of 
Mississippi, as a general army missionary, and Cooper accepted. 
Besides this, several other arrangements were made for missions 
among the soldiers. The location of the missionary committee 
was changed from the army of Tennessee to Selma, Alabama, in 
1864, and under its direction, aided by the superintendent, money 
was raised and still other missionaries secured. 

Mr. Cooper was pre-eminently fitted for the missionary work, and 
he devoted himself to it from 1863 till the end of the war with an 
energy and fidelity that were never surpassed. For four months and 
five days he held meetings on the lines, under fire, every night except 
one. At every meeting his congregations were measured only by 
the compass of his voice. When men could not approach near 
enough to hear they would go away. This was during Joe John- 
ston's retreat through North Georgia. The one night when there 
was no meeting the army marched all night. Nor was Cooper the 
only one who had services every night. The work was general along 
all the lines. There were fourteen miles of revivals nightly and 
multitudes of conversions. 

The programme of exercises agreed on by all the co-operating 
chaplains in this army was as follows: First, at the opening of the 
services all those who had found the Savior were called up to 
ascertain what church they desired to join. At Cooper's meetings 
the number responding to this call was about one hundred per 
night. The next item in the programme was to call up all who 
were seeking salvation. To this invitation a still larger number 
always responded. Then a sermon of instruction was preached, 
specially to the seekers. Then the congregation was dismissed. 
At every service during this bloody retreat, some were present 
who would be killed before the next meeting. Many found Jesus 
during the sermon; some after they went out into the picket holes. 
These holes were very near the enemy, and the pickets had to be 
relieved at midnight, and there were always men killed in this 
work of relieving pickets. One poor fellow gave the following 
account of his conversion. He went from the preaching service to 



Chapter XXXIX.] PREACHING TO SOUDIKRS. 429 

picket duty. Getting down into his picket hole, still thinking of 
the sermon, still eagerly seeking salvation, he felt the light dawn 
upon his soul. Forgetting all about war and its dangers, he raised 
himself up and shouted, l ( Glory to God. ' ' Just then a minie-ball 
cut away a lock of his hair, grazing the scalp. Down into his hole 
he crept again, but his soul was too full of joy to suffer him long 
to keep in mind minie-balls, and in a little while he again rose up 
shouting. Another bullet went through his clothing. So he 
said he " spent the night alternately praising God and dodging 
the devil." On being questioned what he meant by " dodging the 
devil," he said: "It is my opinion that his satanic majesty was 
angry about losing my soul, and I believe he rode astraddle of everv 
one of those balls, but the Lord would not let them hit me. ' ' 

The Rev. Mr. Baker, of Missouri, a Cumberland Presbyterian, 
was standing on the breastworks preaching. In his sermon he was 
crying, "Glory to God," when a ball struck him and killed him in- 
stantly. Old men, past military age, were army chaplains. Rev. 
J. F. McCutcheon, of the Cumberland Presbyterian church, was one 
of these. I saw this old man when his garments were riddled with 
bullets, for he always went along with his men wherever duty 
called him, but bullets were more merciful than some other things. 
General Bragg, a few days before he was removed from the command 
of ' ' the Army of Tennessee, ' ' issued an order to have all his chap- 
lains' horses pressed for military uses. Ministers of the gospel were 
exempted from conscription in "Dixie," but men who were far 
past the military age were in the chaplain work. The Confederate 
government furnished no horses to chaplains. Bragg' s order paid 
no respect to age. Old men like McCutcheon were robbed by it of 
their private property, except where some generous officer, like 
George Johnson, who was allowed several horses, claimed the chap- 
lain's horse, and kept it for its owner. Ah well ! the way Bragg 
left Missionary Ridge, a few days after that order about the chap- 
lains' horses, always seemed to me to be a special retribution. 

One little incident connected with this missionary work is too 
good to be lost. A pocket-book was sent to our missionary com- 
mittee accompanied with the following statement: "The good 
sister who sent it is a widow. Her husband was killed by the frag- 



430 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period v. 

metit of a shell at the battle of Chickamauga. The deadly missile 
struck his pocket first, and drove the pocket-book into his body. 
The surgeon extracted it with its contents. The widow says these 
blood-stained bills are too sacred for any common use. She sends 
them to the missionary board." 

The trials of Southern chaplains were very great. The mess 
tax, which was imposed to eke out sufficient rations, was generally 
larger than a chaplain's salary. It would require a month and a 
half's wages of a chaplain to buy a pound of coffee; and about two 
years' wages to buy an overcoat. The price of a good horse was 
more than any chaplain earned during the whole war. Yet there 
were chaplains who wore out as many as five horses while they were 
in the service. The Southern government furnished neither horses 
nor clothing to chaplains. It was not an uncommon thing for 
chaplains and soldiers to be brought to great suffering both for 
rations and for clothing. 

Chaplain M. B. De Witt, now the Rev. Dr. De Witt, of Nashville, 
Tennessee, had some severe trials. The country where his home 
had been, and where he had left his wife, was invaded. When the 
state of things became unbearable there, Mrs. De Witt, like thou- 
sands of others, became a refugee. Having no other place to fly to, 
she went to the camps, and remained near her husband through all 
those dreadful last struggles of the Confederate army. De Witt was 
one of that class of chaplains whose call to the work came first from 
the men of the regiment, not from the colonel. Of course his 
official nomination had to be made by the colonel. 

Chaplains with the cavalry had a peculiar lot. Their only place 
during a battle was with their regiments. Chaplain A. G. Burrow 
was one of these. He was wounded, and came to the writer's tent. 
It was winter and bitter cold. The wounded chaplain had no over- 
coat. His other coat was thin and ragged. All his clothing was 
worn out. His wound was in his head, and his skull had just been 
trepanned. His face was the color of a corpse. He staggered as he 
walked. His voice, once so quick and cheerful, was faint and fal- 
tering. The wound was four inches long. Yet this man, who 
might have had a comfortable home under his father's roof — who, 
both by reason of his profession, and on account of his wound, 



Chapter XXXIX.] PREACHING TO SOLDIERS. 431 

might have found exemption from further service — chose rather to 
remain as chaplain with the soldiers, and continue his efforts to 
lead them to their Savior. (Acts xx. 24.) 

Many other chaplains deserve as favorable notice as those men- 
tioned in the foregoing sketches, but as it would require a large 
volume to give a full history of all, only such illustrations have 
been selected as the most reliable materials at hand furnish. There 
were other Cumberland Presbyterian preachers who gave their lives 
up, as G. Iy. Winchester gave his, a willing sacrifice for the salva- 
tion of the soldiers. Sharing the privations and dangers of siege 
or battle, eating mule beef at Vicksburg, or marching all night in 
the mad raids, and, when the fight came on, following along the 
battle's fiery front to pick up the wounded and carry them back to 
the field hospital ; then returning to the line to bend over the dying, 
and there, on the bloody field, to write their last message to loved 
ones at home, while shells hurtled and minie-balls whistled thick 
around them, were some of the tasks and duties which fell to the 
lot of our army missionaries. 

In the wonderful revival in the Southern armies the number of 
conversions must have reached an aggregate of more than a hun- 
dred thousand men. Dr. Felix Johnson, now gone to his rest, 
once said, while this work was going on: u God is going to answer 
all these prayers and fast-days which the people of the South are 
having — not by setting up a new Republic, but by converting all 
the Southern soldiers." At two different times, by two different 
men, an extensive history of this great revival was prepared, many 
years ago, but, for unknown reasons neither of these works was 
ever published. No history of the great conflict can be complete 
without an account of this wonderful work of grace. 



433 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period v. 



CHAPTER XL 



COLORED CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIANS. 

Let us have faith in God's all-wise intention, 

His plans will never fail; 
Though far beyond our feeble comprehension, 

We know it must prevail. 

— 6". A. Stoddard. 

O stranger, with all your wealth, 

Do you 'spect to buy heaven and keep it for yourself? 

— Negro Melody. 

BEFORE the war there were twenty thousand colored Cumber- 
' land Presbyterians. These all belonged to the same congre- 
gations of which the white people were members, and were under 
the ministrations of the same preachers who served the white 
congregations. While there were instances in the South in which 
white men built separate churches for their slaves and hired for 
them separate pastors, yet there were no such instances among the 
Cumberland Presbyterians. In our church colored members every- 
where attended the same services with the white people. It is true 
that separate seats were appropriated to them, but white people 
and black were taught the way of salvation by the same pastors. 
In addition to this privilege of attending services along with the 
white people, the colored people had preachers of their own race, 
and held their own special services, occupying the same houses 
which were owned and used by the white congregations. State 
laws generally required that some steady white man should be 
present at these meetings. This requirement was always complied 
with. 

An illustration showing the nature of pastoral work in a con- 
gregation made up of white people and their slaves will doubtless 
be of interest. In a town in Middle Tennessee the pastor of such 
a church had under his charge one hundred and fifty colored mem- 
bers. He was as much the pastor of the humblest of these as of 



Chapter XL.] COLORED CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIANS. 433 

the wealthiest and most influential white member. Common 
sense, if nothing better, required that his pastoral labors among 
these people should conform to the wishes and interests of the 
owners. Many a time was he taken by the mistress into the negro 
cabin to minister to some afflicted servant. Many a time, too, 
under similar direction, did he go to the negro cabin to pray for 
some penitent sinner, and try to lead him to his Savior. While 
he was the pastor of these colored people he had a colored assist- 
ant, ' * Brother Jim, ' ' the property of one of the elders. It was 
Jim's custom regularly to bring the notes of his sermon to the 
white pastor Saturday afternoon for criticism ; and when something 
was pointed out to be corrected he never failed to make the sug- 
gested changes. Jim preached at three o'clock Sunday afternoons 
in the same pulpit which had been occupied by the regular pastor 
in the morning. It was the pastor's duty and pleasure as a Chris- 
tian to be present at these three o'clock services, and he testifies 
that he has heard no preaching from our colored brethren since 
the war which was as near the pure gospel as Jim's simple and 
earnest discourses. There were many converts at these meetings. 
This is a sample of the general order of things with Cumberland 
Presbyterian pastors throughout the Southern States before the 
war. 

At the camp-meetings there were some special arrangements 
for colored worshipers. A shed in front of the pulpit was built 
for the white people, and another in the rear for the colored 
people. When the call for mourners was made at the close of the 
sermon, seats next the pulpit both front and rear were reserved 
for the penitents. There were many conversions in the rear of 
the pulpit as well as in the front; but the negroes never seemed to 
feel entirely free to work in their own way until the white people 
closed their services and went to their tents. Then began a scene 
of wild excitement and wonderful interest which no pen can 
describe. The singing at such a time was specially interesting. 
Nothing in the meetings of the colored people at the present day 
makes any approximation to these revival melodies. The camp- 
meeting songs of the negroes, like the corn songs of that period, 
were rich, original, and genuine African productions. When a 
28 



434 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period v. 

thousand negroes, keeping time with foot and head, with arms and 
body, poured out all their souls upon the night air in a camp- 
meeting chorus suited to their voices and their culture, the weird 
and solemn grandeur and grotesqueness were indescribable. 

Our colored ministers sometimes preached to white audiences. 
There was a colored Cumberland Presbyterian preacher in Missouri 
who often preached at camp-meetings to the white people. It was 
everywhere the custom among Cumberland Presbyterians to ordain 
white and colored preachers in precisely the same way and by the 
same presbyters, except that the necessities of the case made it 
necessary to use leniency about literary requirements. The educa- 
tion of the colored preacher in the days of slavery was secured 
under no little disadvantage. Generally his teacher was his 
u young master," usually a lad of from twelve to eighteen. His 
theological instruction was obtained partly at church, partly at 
the meetings of the presbytery, where he was catechised, and 
partly in private interviews with his pastor. 

The old order of things broke down during the war. The 
origin of this change has often been misunderstood. It was by 
their own choice, and without any promptings by their former 
masters, that the colored members of our church ceased to attend 
services with the white people. The change was universal, and in 
all the denominations. A state of things sprang up during the 
war which not only led to this result, but also closed their ears for 
a time against all white preachers of Southern antecedents. 

After the war, in October, 1868, the colored people of the Cum- 
berland Presbyterian church held a convention at Henderson, Ken- 
tucky, to decide what steps should be taken. The convention was 
not large, but the prevailing voice was for ecclesiastical separation 
from the whites. A call for another convention to meet in Hunts- 
ville, Alabama, January, 1869, was responded to by only a few. 
Those who met decided to defer all action until the next May, and 
endeavor to have a full delegation of colored ministers in a con- 
vention to be held at the same time and place at which the next 
General Assembly was to meet. The Banner of Peace joined 
heartily in the call for a full convention. Dr. W. D. Chadick, 
pastor of our church at Murfreesboro, where the Assembly was to 



Chapter XL.] COLORED CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIANS. 435 

meet, published assurances that all the colored delegates would be 
entertained free of charge. A full delegation was present. After 
this convention had held several meetings, the Rev. Moses T. Weir, 
brother of our African missionary, went to one of the members of 
the General Assembly and requested his co-operation in obtaining 
the consent of the Assembly to the organization of a separate 
African Cumberland Presbyterian church. In a long conversation 
on this subject Weir said that colored men would, never learn self- 
reliance and independence in the same church judicatures with the 
white people. It seemed evident that much larger financial assist- 
ance for the work among the negroes could be secured by Mr. 
Weir's plan than by any other. 

In a short time the convention sent in to the General Assembly 
its official action. That action declares that "it would not be for 
the advancement of the interests of the church among either the 
white or colored people for the ministers of the two races to meet 
together in the same judicatures." The convention therefore 
asked the Assembly to adopt a plan by which, under the superin- 
tendence and by assistance of the whites, they might be organized 
into separate presbyteries and synods. It asked also for financial 
aid^in setting up the new organization. 

To all of this the Assembly gave its consent, and appointed the 
necessary committees for carrying out the plan. Under this plan 
several colored presbyteries were organized that same year. The 
committee to co-operate with the colored people in this organiza- 
tion, and in establishing a school for the education of their minis- 
ters, was composed of the Rev. J. C. Bowden, D.D., the Rev. 
Barnett Miller, the Rev. Thomas E. Young, together with ruling 
elders A. M. C. Simmons and A. J. Fuqua. This committee, be- 
sides such aid as it was practicable to give in organizing presby- 
teries, also appointed the Rev. Moses T. Weir agent to secure funds 
for the establishment of a college for colored people. 

In the organization of the colored presbyteries others besides 
the committee rendered valuable assistance. The Rev. M. B. De 
Witt, D. D. , was perhaps the very first to aid in this work. 

All seemed to start off with the utmost harmony. No jar had 
occurred up to 1870. In May of that year, when our General 



436 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period v. 

Assembly met at Warrensburg, Missouri, the Rev. Moses T. Weir 
appeared with a commission from the Greenville Presbytery (col- 
ored), .asking a seat as a member of the Assembly. Fears were 
entertained by Southern members that somebody was trying to 
use Weir for political purposes, and there were in the Assembly 
indications of serious trouble about this matter. The commission 
which Mr. Weir presented was read by Dr. Bird, the stated clerk, 
and action concerning it was deferred until after the committee 
appointed the year before at Murfreesboro, Tennessee, to co-operate 
with the colored people in their efforts to establish an institution of 
learning should make its report. The matter came up several times 
during the first four days of the Assembly's meeting, and there 
were some exciting discussions. Finally, the Rev. W. S. Camp- 
bell, D. D. , of Illinois, called attention to the fact that there was 
no proper information before the General Assembly touching the 
organization or existence of Greenville Presbytery, and on his 
motion Mr. Weir's informal commission was almost unanimously 
laid on the table. A similar case was before the next Assembly, 
with similar results. Since then all strife about the relations of 
our church to the colored people has ceased. 

The colored Cumberland Presbyterians have continued their 
work with varying prosperity, but their success has been far be- 
yond what the many discouragements would have led us to expect. 
They now have a General Assembly, a Board of Missions, a Board 
of Publication, and other boards. The increase in the number of 
their ministers has been wonderful. They have five synods, nine- 
teen presbyteries, two hundred ordained ministers, two hundred 
and twenty-five licensed preachers, two hundred candidates for the 
ministry, and fifteen thousand members. Although there were 
about twenty thousand colored Cumberland Presbyterians in i860, 
only a very small portion of them were gathered into this inde- 
pendent denomination. The Rev. Robert Johnson, corresponding 
delegate sent from that church to our General Assembly in 1874, 
made the following statement : 

Moderator and Brethren: Believing that more good would be 
accomplished by a separate organization, the body which I have the 
honor to represent hailed with pleasure the action taken by the General 



Chapter XL.] COLORED CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIANS. 437 

Assembly of the Cumberland Presbyterian church in Murfreesboro, 
Tennessee, in May, 1869. With the assistance and co-operation of 
presbyteries under your control, a number of colored ministers have 
been from time to time set apart to the whole work of the ministry to 
labor among their own people. These ministers have formed them- 
selves into presbyteries and synods, and on the first day of May, 1874, 
commissioners from the various presbyteries met in the city of Nash- 
ville, Tennessee, and formed a General Assembly. That body deter- 
mined to appoint a corresponding delegate to represent them in this 
meeting of your reverend body, and that duty devolved upon me. Un- 
der the control of the body which I represent, there are now seven 
presbyteries, viz.: Huntsville, Elk River, Farmington, Hiwassee, New 
Hopewell, New Middleton, and Springfield. The first four constitute 
the Synod of Tennessee, and the last three the Synod of Huntsville. 
In our communion we number now, as nearly as can be ascertained, 46 
ordained ministers, 20 licentiates, 30 candidates, and 3,000 communi- 
cants. The value of church property is about $5,000. We earnestly 
desire, moderator and brethren, to have your assistance and co-opera- 
tion. We are weak, you are strong; we are young as an organization, 
you are old. We need the benefit of your experience. Above all, we 
need your prayers. For these things I confidently ask, and may the 
great Head of the church accept you and us with all true believers into 
his holy keeping always. 

In twelve years the growth in numbers in the ministry and 
membership of this church has been five hundred per cent. 

The school for colored Cumberland Presbyterians at Bowling 
Green, Kentucky, has never received any considerable assistance 
from the wealthy. Perhaps the whole church has not contributed 
as much as ten thousand dollars for its establishment and support. 
It is a struggling enterprise, yet it has done some good work in 
spite of its disadvantages. At the meeting of our General Assem- 
bly at Covington, Ohio, May, 1887, nearly $2,700 was raised for 
the benefit of this institution, thus freeing it from debt. 

We all acknowledge our obligation to send the gospel to Africa, 
and think it a noble work of Christian lieroism to go to that dark 
land and win souls to Christ; but the Africans here at our doors 
have still stronger claims on us. In spite of past difficulties and 
theoretical fears, it stands to-day as a demonstrated fact wherever 
tested that labors in the interest of the colored people by Southern 
white men are not only acceptable, but also fruitful of good results. 



438 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period v. 

The Rev. J. h. Cooper, who was army missionary, furnishes 
an account of his work among the negroes of Mississippi since the 
war. In the field where he labored the ' ' prohibition ' ' ticket tri- 
umphed through negro votes, and that, too, when the advocates 
of the liquor traffic with money and whisky sought to corrupt 
these voters. Mr. Cooper had his hands full of other work, but 
he made occasional tours among the negroes, and he testifies that 
these occasional visits yielded better fruits than his labors among 
the white people. He says that the negroes of Mississippi are 
everywhere accessible if Southern white preachers approach them 
in the right spirit. This is the testimony of a man born and reared 
in Mississippi — a man who was a missionary in the rebel army. 

There ought to be an organized system of evangelistic work 
among the negroes by Cumberland Presbyterians, and Southern 
white men should lead in this work. There ought to be minis- 
ters and lay workers in the South noble enough and with enough 
of the spirit of Christ to trample under foot all foolish prejudices, 
and render personal assistance in the meetings and the Sabbath- 
schools of the colored people. Why should a young man who had 
a negro nurse for daily companion and instructor through all the 
tenderest and most impressible years of childhood, now be thrust 
out and lose caste because he tries to instruct a class in the col- 
ored Sabbath-school, or leads the worship in a meeting of colored 
people ? 

The religious interests of the colored Cumberland Presbyterians 
will no doubt be best developed in a separate denomination of 
their own, where the whole responsibility of their ecclesiastical 
affairs is placed in their own hands. Yet who can doubt that it is 
our solemn duty to help them establish a school for the instruction 
of their preachers ? And when this school is established, one of 
our educated white men who is sound in the faith should be 
secured for its theological department until the time comes when 
enough of scholarship and enough of soundness in the faith are 
found among the colored preachers to enable them to teach their 
own candidates for the ministry. 

As a fitting close to this chapter, the appeal of the Rev. J. F. 
Humphrey to our Assembly in 1879 is inserted: 



Chapter XL.] COLORED CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIANS. 439 

Fayetteville, Tenn., May 14, 1879. 

To the General Assembly of the Cumberland Presbyterian churchy Memphis, Tenn. 

The General Assembly (colored) of the Cumberland Presbyterian 
church, which convened at Bowling Green, Kentucky, May 1, 1879, 
conferred the honor upon me to address your reverend and honored 
body, to set forth our warm sympathies and Christian love. We look 
upon you as our fathers and our refuge in time of need, and feel 
assured that you will hear the cries of your poor, humble, destitute 
children. We have been set apart only a few years, and through much 
prayer and hard struggles we have been able to sustain the doctrine of 
our fathers, which is as dear as life itself to us. As children, you have 
our prayers that all the proceedings of your body may be guided by 
the unerring counsel of the God of our fathers. We pray that the 
day may not be far distant wlien our poor young preachers shall be 
imbued with the spirit and wisdom which distinguishes your noble 
body. You have our sincere and heartfelt thanks for your liberal 
donations to our young preacher at Lebanon, Tennessee, at your last 
sitting, and we humbly solicit and pray that you will still remember us, 
and provide some means to aid us in the publication of our little paper, 
which we desire to issue in the interest of our church. I herewith send 
you a circular letter, which will set forth our desires and intentions. 
Should it trespass upon your precious time and suspend your business 
to read this article, please allow your minds to reflect upon our deplora- 
ble condition when we were set apart, by our own request, expecting, 
after we had made earnest endeavors to help ourselves, that you would 
extend the aiding hand to succor your child that looks to its father for 
assistance. 

We truly regretted that we were deprived of the counsel of your 
corresponding delegate at Bowling Green, as he did not appear or send 
any communication whatever. We value your prayers for the fulfill- 
ment of our desires, and shall ever expect your earnest petitions to 
ascend to the throne of grace in our behalf. If nothing else is done 
but the offering of your prayers in our behalf, the dark cloud will be 
dispersed, and then we shall be able to rejoice in the God of our fathers. 

Please remember the colored Cumberland Presbyterians in your 
devotional exercises. If you do this, we feel confident that the obstacles 
will be removed, and we shall be able to advance in our work, ever 
holding up the Cumberland Presbyterian banner, with the precious 
name of Jesus inscribed upon it. May God be with you and conduct 
the business of your body to the approval and approbation of the 
Supreme Moderator of the universe. 

Yours fraternally, J. F. Humphrey, 

Stated Clerk Cumberland Presbyterian Assembly. 



440 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period, v. 



CHAPTER XLI 



MISSIONS— 1860 TO 1870. 

"Sow in faith through joy and sorrow, 

Lo, the promise standeth plain, 

There shall dawn a harvest morrow, 

Seeds that die shall live again." 

IN i860 there were in the United States fourteen Cumberland 
Presbyterian missions in cities and larger towns. So far as can 
be ascertained, self-sustaining churches have been established at all 
these points, except in Louisville, Kentucky, San Antonio, Texas, 
and Burlington, Iowa. The work at Burlington has been finally 
abandoned. At Louisville and San Antonio promising mission 
churches are now growing up. 

While the war raged, mission work was prosecuted at Mattoon, 
Macomb, Atlanta, Winona, and Jersey ville, Illinois; Leavenworth 
Kansas; and Waukon, Oskaloosa and Nevada, Iowa. Most of this 
work was under the charge of the Board of Missions at Alton, 
Illinois. The churches at Waukon, Nevada, Mattoon and Atlanta 
have become self-sustaining. 

In the years immediately succeeding the war missions were 
reported at Austin, Texas, and Bowling Green, Kentucky; also at 
Paducah, Kentucky; Clarksville, Chattanooga, and Shelby ville, 
Tennessee; and Helena, Arkansas. The first two advanced rap- 
idly to a self-sustaining strength. 

On the Pacific coast no new missions in cities or towns were 
undertaken during this period. Some active country missions and 
valuable itinerent work were reported. The missionaries of this 
period in California were D. E. Bushnell, E. C. Latta, O. D. Dooley, 
E. J. Gillespie, C. H. Crawford, L. Dooley, W. N. Cunningham, 
and C. Yager. Some of these labored in local missions, and some 
traveled only for a short period. There was a missionary board, or 



Chapter XLL] MISSIONS. 441 

committee, in California. But little or no help was sent from the 
older portions of the church to any part of the Pacific coast 

In other States, itinerent missionaries were not numerous. The 
Rev. Benjamin Hall was kept at work in Iowa part of the time as 
missionary evangelist, and part of the time in charge of the Waukon 
mission. He gave frequent accounts of precious revivals. The 
Rev. P. H. Crider was missionary in the same State, devoting him- 
self partly to a local field and laboring also as an evangelist. He, 
too, reported gracious revivals. The same statements apply to the 
Rev. A. H. Houghton, who was laboring in Iowa and Minnesota. 
At the beginning of this period the Rev. J. B. Green was working 
in Kansas as an itinerant missionary under the direction of the 
Board of Missions at Lebanon, Tennessee. He had remarkable 
success. The Rev. A. M. Wilson was employed as a missionary in 
Kansas during part of this period. The board says of him : ' ' He 
is a faithful, self-sacrificing brother." 

The principal new territories entered by our people between i860 
and 1870 were Nebraska and Colorado. This work began through 
the immigration of Cumberland Presbyterians into these Terri- 
tories, but so little was accomplished in these fields that it is best 
to reserve it to be placed along with the events of the next period. 

Although the entire work of the Board of Missions at Lebanon, 
Tennessee, was suspended by the war; and although the interven- 
ing military lines prevented any communication between the board 
at Alton, Illinois, and our Indian missions, yet these missions 
stubbornly refused to die. The Rev. R. S. Bell and his wife, with 
the native preachers to aid them, determined to keep the churches 
alive. All through the war, without any salary from the board, 
Bell 'abored on. The Indians helped to feed him; but it was by 
a hard struggle, and through much privation and self-denial, that 
the work was sustained. The fruits of this self-sacrificing toil will 
endure forever. When the war closed and mails were re-established, 
it was with feelings of amazement that the church found this mis- 
sionary hero still at his post. He continued in this work till 1880. 

The foreign missionary work of Cumberland Presbyterians 
during this period was in three fields: the Indian country, Liberia, 
and Turkey. The work of Edmond Weir in Africa was continued 



442 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period v. 

through all these dark war years. From 1861 till he came back to 
America, in 1868, his letters grew more and more gloomy. Writing 
to the Rev. J. B. Logan, from Cape Mount, Liberia, September n, 
1861, he says: 

This morning I must confess that I am at a great loss to know how 

to write these lines to you in the United States I think that 

my good Brother Logan will drop me a few lines and let me hear how 
stands the case with the board and its foreign fields of labor. I know, 
from what I read, that it can not do much at present toward paying us 
off. But when will it ? I am bare for clothing — indeed I may say that 
I have but one coat; .... and I do n't know what I will have to 
do, seeing those who have such things for sale, say: "I can not credit 
you, for I think that your board will not do any thing more." .... 
Now, if any member of the board were to drop me a line, saying, "The 
board will send you some money in a short time," I could get credit, 
and not suffer so much. Will you please let me know how stands 
the case at this time. Please write as soon as you get this letter, so that 
I can know what to do. 

I am your most humble servant, E. Weir. 

While the war progressed, and the Board of Missions at Leba- 
non was inoperative, the Alton board took charge of this Liberia 
mission, but could send Weir only a very meager support, and 
utterly failed to secure any other preachers to join him. When 
the board at Lebanon resumed operations in 1867, the missions were 
divided between the boards, and the work in Liberia fell to the 
Alton board. Weir's letters were gloomy; his wife's still more so. 
In 1868 he left his family in Africa, and came to America to see 
what was the matter. He attended the meeting of the Alton board, 
but was not much encouraged by what he there learned. That 
board was in debt, and had no money for him. It, however, gave 
him permission to canvass its field and collect all the help he could. 
After a brief and very unprofitable canvass, he was requested by the 
board to take a mission to the freedmen of the Southern States, 
instead of his African mission. This he declined. The board 
then asked the advice of the General Assembly, and was instructed 
to abandon the Liberia mission. 

This is a sad record to make, but it will be borne in mind that 
all the Southern States, where two thirds of our people lived, were 



Chapter XLL] MISSIONS. 443 

in a state of extreme financial prostration. North as well as South 
the absorbing interest in the war, the excitements and distractions, 
the sore losses and bereavements, had long interfered with mission- 
ary collections and hindered all church operations. Every depart- 
ment of the work was crippled for the lack of money. Time was 
needed for our people to recover their strength and for those who 
had been separated during the years of the great struggle to re-adjust 
themselves to one another and to the work. While the church was 
in this crippled state, it was found impossible to do much for foreign 
missions, and so the Liberia mission failed. 

As for Mr. Weir, he quit the Cumberland Presbyterian church 
and joined the Congregationalists. 

The Rev. J. C. Armstrong's mission to Turkey had, in some 
respects, a sadder history than the Liberia mission. His Southern 
birth and Southern sympathies involved him in a class of difficulties 
which need not be discussed. He was sent by the Lebanon board, 
which became inoperative before Armstrong had been in Turkey 
twelve months. This board was crippled almost to its death before 
Armstrong set his foot on Asiatic soil. 

In the summer of i860, supplied with numerous letters of intro- 
duction, the missionary and his wife, and their three-months-old 
babe set sail from New York in the Golden Rule, Captain Mayo. 
This was a sail ship, bound for India via London. It was over- 
laden, and had a poor crew, though a good captain. 

They were becalmed for a week near the banks of New Found- 
land. After this, late one night when they were under full sail, 
near the middle of the Atlantic, they were overtaken by a sudden 
storm. Every sail was spread when the hurricane struck them. 
The ship was thrown on its beam ends, and when the captain or- 
dered the sails to be furled, he found the crew in mutiny. Not a 
man obeyed the order. It was perhaps due to this mutiny that the 
watch had not been faithful to report the approaching storm. The 
captain, however, was equal to the emergency. He managed by 
the assistance of the officers to capture and lock up the crew, and 
take in the sails. Presently the ship was found to be leaking rap- 
idly. The pumps were resorted to, but it was ascertained that the 
mutineers had intentionally spoiled them. After much trouble and 



444 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period v. 

alarm, the pumps were repaired and officers and passengers were 
set to pumping; but in spite of their utmost efforts, the water 
gained on them. Wild alarm now reigned. The captain said that 
the vessel would not keep afloat fifteen minutes longer. Death was 
the accepted issue. True, there might be some faint hope of escap- 
ing in the boats, if the officers could manage to launch them. Be- 
fore this was undertaken, however, the captain remembered that 
the vessel was still on its side, and that the leak might be in the 
side, and not in the hull. Instantly he called every body to aid in 
righting the ship. That was a supreme, moment of peril and sus- 
pense. Should all the time remaining be spent in righting the 
vessel, and the leak still continue, it would then be too late to 
lower the boats. Bvery energy was taxed to its utmost, and the 
ship was righted. It was then found that the leak had entirely 
ceased. The injury was in the side of the ship, above the water- 
line. After much vigorous pumping they succeeded in emptying 
the vessel of water, and finally reached London in safety. 

In London, the missionaries utilized their many letters of intro- 
duction in a social and pleasant manner. Here, too, tidings reached 
them of ' ' the Syrian massacre. ' ' This was a trial to missionaries 
bound for Damascus. The different missionary societies of London 
advised them to abandon the mission to Syria. From London they 
went to Paris, where they again made pleasant use of their letters 
of introduction. From France they sailed on a French steamer to 
Constantinople. They came in sight of this city the morning of 
the 22d of September, i860. 

Armstrong says that he had from his boyhood felt a special call 
to preach to the Mohammedans, and when he reached Constanti- 
nople, he felt as if his life's mission lay before his eyes. Engaging 
boarding with the Rev. Wm. Goodall, D. D. , the missionaries set to 
work immediately to study the Turkish language. After six 
months they rented a house, moved into it, and then began in a 
small way to work among their neighbors. In the meantime they 
had cultivated the acquaintance of all the Protestant missionaries 
then in the city. 

In the latter part of the year i860, a delegation from Brusa, a 
populous city seventy miles westward, visited the missionaries at 



Chapter XLL] MISSIONS. 445 

Constantinople. This delegation represented two thousand people 
who had revolted from the Greek church. They proposed to turn 
over their houses of worship, membership, and other interests to 
any Protestant missionary board that would immediately supply 
them with preaching. Two Protestant preachers, one an editor 
and a native Greek, proposed to Armstrong that they three should 
unite and form a Cumberland Presbyterian Presbytery, and take 
charge of this work in Brusa. Here was a conflict between what 
seemed a clear call of divine Providence, and a long-cherished im- 
pression that he was especially called to work for the Mohammed- 
ans. He had made good progress in the Turkish language, but he 
could already speak modern Greek. 

Two things, however, were necessary in order to carry out the 
Brusa enterprise — authority from the Cumberland Presbyterian 
Board of Missions, and more money. If the two Greek preachers 
entered the work with him, they, as well as he, would need a small 
advance from the board. He wrote, but received no reply. He 
waited and hoped till the opportunity was gone forever. 

There were other similar offers, however, from the Greeks — one 
from the islands of the Greek Archipelago, but they were all de- 
clined. Armstrong studied several languages simultaneously with 
the Turkish. Mrs. Armstrong studied these languages with her 
husband, and one (Armenian) which he did not. She and her hus- 
band still use the Turkish language in their family, being great 
admirers of that conglomerate tongue. 

When the war grew to a white heat in America, the American 
missionaries in Constantinople became intensely wrought up con- 
cerning the war issues at home. Armstrong's position became per- 
ilous. His supplies from America were all cut off. His political 
antecedents prevented him from obtaining any loans from the other 
American missionaries. He saw before him no prospect but starva- 
tion. He says: "I called my faithful servant and his wife, and told 
them we could no longer afford to keep a servant; they would have 
to go." He then had prayers with them. When they rose after 
prayer, the man said: "God do so to me and more also if we leave 
thee." He then ran down stairs and brought up his earnings, 
amounting to a hundred dollars, and placed the money in Arm- 



446 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period v. 

strong's hands. This kept them from starvation a little while 
longer. Then their rent was due, and their provisions exhausted. 
The landlord gave them notice to vacate the house in twenty-four 
hours. In that burning heat they could not live twenty-four hours 
outside of shelter. Human help there was none. The night was 
spent in looking to a higher source of help. The next morning 
there was a vigorous knocking at the door. They supposed their 
landlord had come to put them out, but, when they opened the 
door with fear and trembling, it was not the red turban, and big 
breeches, and bloated face of their landlord which met them, but a 
young Frenchman in European costume. He seemed excited, and 
handing Armstrong some money, said hurriedly that the Lord had 
impressed it on his heart in the night that Armstrong was in want, 
and had sent him with relief. He told Armstrong that he had just 
seen the dreaded landlord, and settled the rents for the past, and 
for six months in advance. He refused to give his name, but said, 
with tears: u I belong to your King; never doubt that a gracious 
Lord is watching over you. Good-bye. ' ' From that day to this 
Armstrong has neither seen this timely messenger nor received any 
tidings from him. He found his rent all paid, as the Frenchman 
had told him. 

That night the chaplain of the British embassy, the Rev. Mr. 
Gribble, came and loaned Armstrong some money. Next day Mr. 
Gribble and his wife called, bringing various articles which the 
missionaries greatly needed. By invitation, formally made, Arm- 
strong began making translations for the seven pastors of the Re- 
formed Armenian church, who about that time had declared them- 
selves independent of the American Board, and set up an organiza- 
tion of their own. The manuscripts of their leader were a mixed 
mass of English, Turkish, and French, as confused in matter as in 
language. They desired Armstrong to arrange this mass in one 
language, and from it to formulate their system of theology for 
them. To this work he devoted three months, and when he had 
digested, arranged, and translated the matter placed in his hands, 
he found it to be a system of doctrine almost identical with that 
taught by Cumberland Presbyterians. This creed, he says, is no 
doubt still held and preached by these oriental pastors. 



Chapter XLI.] MISSIONS. 447 

Another work now opened up for our missionary. It was the 
translation of the Scriptures into the Roumanian language. He 
accepted this work, and expected to travel to the capital city of 
Roumania. Here a new difficulty met him. American citizens 
who were suspected of rebel sympathies had trouble about secur- 
ing passports. Armstrong took Turkish protection; but he did 
not, after all, embark in this new work, or need his Turkish pass- 
port. An attack of typhoid fever kept him in Constantinople. 
The illness was long and severe, but all his wants were supplied. 
The missionaries sat up with him, nursed him, and when he was 
able to travel loaned him money to the amount of six hundred dol- 
lars to come home on. The voyage back to America restored his 
health and closed his missionary career. 

His wife was a Canadian, and he sailed from Asia to Canada, 
where he remained teaching school until after the close of the war. 
He greatly longed to return to Asia, but the way has never been 
opened. The Board of Missions at Lebanon, Tennessee, when it 
resumed operations, paid off the debts which he had been forced to 
contract. "God sometimes sends his servants a long way to do 
what seems to us a very little thing. n No matter, if he sends us, 
it will all be right 



sixth period; 



CHAPTER XLII. 



SEVERAL GENERAL ASSEMBLIES. 

Return to thy fortress 

That can not be taken, 
And rest on thy rock 

That no earthquake hath shaken. 

— Anna Shipton. 

THE earthquake was past, and our temple stood without a 
rent in its walls. We had felt the shock only to learn new 
lessons about the firmness of that Rock on which . our house is 
builded. After 1870 the spirit of unity and fraternity in the Cum- 
berland Presbyterian church grew rapidly, and there is more union 
of heart among our people now than ever before. 

The General Assembly of 187 1, which met at Nashville, Ten- 
nessee, was harmonious and full of hope. The quarterly system 
of collections by pastors, which had been suspended for one year, 
was by this Assembly promptly, and with great unanimity, restored. 

The Assembly of 1872, at Evausville, Indiana, appointed a day 
of prayer for colleges, and called on the whole church to join in its 
observance. The great want of the church was men. All keenly 
felt this want; and the struggle to train men for their work in the 
ministry was embarrassed by the overwhelming bankruptcy of all 
the Southern people. Besides this general bankruptcy, which sur- 
passed all description, there was in the Southern States a sad lack 
of young men. Many from both sections who had been the hope 
of church and State were sleeping in coffinless graves on the 
myriad battle-fields of the civil war. Our church was very weak 
in the Northern States, and the hope of a supply of recruits for 
(443) 



Chapter XLIL] SEVERAL GENERAL ASSEMBLIES. 449 

the broken ranks of the ministry was but faint. Hitherto, the 
most of our preachers, even in the Northern States, had come 
from that South which was now to a large extent demoralized and 
in ruins. The day of prayer was well timed and was generally 
observed, and as the history of our colleges will show, it was not 
observed in vain. 

At this Assembly the announcement was officially made of the 
death of the Rev. Milton Bird, D.D., the stated clerk. Dr. Bird 
is one of those characters that will grow in our esteem as the years 
sweep away and all littleness and party prejudices die out. He 
belonged to no section, no party; and because he would not bow 
down and worship at any partisan shrine, the true grandeur of his 
soul was not appreciated in the days of mad partisan extremes. 
Ruling Blder John Frizzell was elected stated clerk in Dr. Bird's 
place. Mr. Frizzell had special adaptedness to this work, and the 
announcement that he could be secured to fill this vacancy gave 
universal satisfaction. 

This Assembly warned our churches and people against bad 
books. Most of the session was occupied in considering the 
revised Form of Government, which had long been under dis- 
cussion, and which, after three references to the presbyteries, was 
at last laid on the table indefinitely. 

The Assembly of 1873 was ne ^ at Huntsville, Alabama. One 
matter of special interest came before this body. Dr. A. J. Baird, 
who had been sent as corresponding delegate to the General Assem- 
bly of the Northern Presbyterian church, in session at Baltimore, 
Maryland, telegraphed that a committee to consider organic union 
with Cumberland Presbyterians had, at his request, been appointed 
by the Presbyterian Assembly, and he asked our Assembly if it 
would appoint a similar committee. Dr. Baird had, on his own 
responsibility, made this proposition, and the Presbyterian Assem- 
bly had acted on it. Our Assembly appointed the committee asked 
for, and thus another fruitless movement looking toward ' organic 
union was inaugurated. 

The two committees thus appointed had a very pleasant and 
fraternal conference at Nashville, Tennessee, beginning February 
25th, 1874, and continuing through the next day. The members 
29 



450 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi, 

of the Cumberland Presbyterian committee present were Drs. 
Richard Beard, J. B. Mitchell, A. J. Baird, and A. B. Miller. 
Among the members of the Presbyterian committee were Drs. H. 
A. Nelson, of Cincinnati, Ohio; Joseph T. Smith, of Baltimore, 
Maryland; and Charles A. Dickey, of St. Louis, Missouri. But 
in this case, as in the conference at Memphis six years before with 
the committee of the Southern branch of the Presbyterian church, 
the only basis of union submitted by the Presbyterians was the 
Westminster Confession of Faith. In the Nashville conference 
the Presbyterians did not even promise to submit to their Assem- 
bly the plan of union proposed by the Cumberland Presbyterian 
committee, but recommended that negotiations should be con- 
tinued. As in the conference at Memphis, so at Nashville the 
Cumberland Presbyterian committee went to great lengths in try- 
ing to devise a plan upon which the two churches could unite. 
The plan proposed in the latter case was as follows: 

We, the committee on the part of the Cumberland Presbyterian 
church, submit the following as a basis of union between our church 
and the Presbyterian church here represented: 

i. That both Confessions of Faith shall be retained as they are, and 
shall be regarded as of equal authority as standards of evangelical doc- 
trine; and hereafter in the licensure of candidates, and in the ordination 
of ministers or other officers of the church, or on any other occasion 
when it shall be necessary to adopt a Confession of Faith, it shall be 
left to the choice of the individual as to which of these he shall adopt. 

2. That the Form of Government and Discipline of the Presbyte- 
rian church shall be the Form of Government and Discipline of the 
united church. 

3, That the united church shall be known as the Presbyterian 
church of the United States of America. 

The impression went abroad that the joint committee had 
agreed to this plan of union, and such an impression prevailed 
among the members of the next Cumberland Presbyterian Assem- 
bly; but neither the published records of the joint committee nor 
the original manuscript minutes of its meetings justify any such 
conclusion. 

To the plan of union proposed by our committee the Presbyte- 
rian committee responded in these words: 



Chapter XLIL] SEVERAL GENERAL ASSEMBLIES. 451 

The committee on the part of the General Assembly of the Presby- 
terian church having considered the paper presented by our brethren, 
cordially respond: 

1. That this paper and our familiar conference of this morning con- 
firm the impressions and hopes indicated in our previous paper, and 
our desire for the continued and increased intercourse, co-operation, 
and united prayer of the ministers and people of both churches which 
that paper recommends. 

2. That in our judgment it is desirable that such intercourse be con- 
tinued, and the mutual acquaintance of the two churches become more 
extensive and intimate before their General Assemblies shall be called 
upon to act upon any plan of union. 

3. That in submitting the proceedings of this joint committee to 
our respective Assemblies we recommend the appointment of a joint 
committee for continued conference and for promoting intercourse and 
acquaintance between the two bodies during the next year. 

The one thing which the joint committee agreed upon was that 
the negotiations should be continued. This was the only question 
connected with this matter which the Cumberland Presbyterian 
Assembly of 1874, at Springfield, Missouri, was called upon to 
decide. The discussion of this subject, however, which was not 
free from ill-feeling, took a far wider range. The Assembly 
finally adopted a resolution which, without expressing any opinion 
on the proposed plan of union, declared it inexpedient to continue 
the negotiations. This forestalled the action of the Presbyterian 
Assembly, and the whole matter was dropped. 

There are two false ideas that ought never again to deceive us 
or our Presbyterian brethren. One is the hope on their part that 
our people will sometime adopt unchanged the Westminster Con- 
fession of Faith. The other is the belief among Cumberland 
Presbyterians that Presbyterians are ready to accept our doctrinal 
platform. Both parties are honest and conscientious, and so long 
as there exist such important differences in doctrinal views, they 
can work with more harmony and love in separate ecclesiastical 
organizations. The union which Christ prayed for is not an out- 
ward visible union, else we would all be diiven back into the 
Roman Catholic church. Outward union is vain and worthless 
when union of heart and spirit do not accompany it. Union of 
heart often binds Christians of different churches closer together 



452 • Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

than brothers of the same family. We should cultivate this lov- 
ing spirit, and wait till God's providence prepares the way for out- 
ward oneness. We can cordially co-operate in promoting such 
preparation, but we can not force it. 

All the propositions made by Presbyterians for conference about 
union with Cumberland Presbyterians have contained evidence 
that the union to be taken into consideration was, according to the 
Presbyterian view, to be on the basis of the Westminster standards. 
Thus the Presbyterian Assembly (Southern), in appointing a com- 
mittee to meet a similar committee from our church, used this 
language : 

o o 

In practically carrying out this idea [viz., of a union], the Assem- 
bly, laying aside ecclesiastical etiquette, would affectionately say to their 
brethren of the Associate Reformed Synod, that they may pull the 
latch-string of our dwelling whenever they may choose, and may be 
incorporated with us upon the simple adoption of our standards, when- 
ever these may happen to differ from their own; and to our brethren 
of the Cumberland Presbyterian church, we respectfully suggest 
whether the time has not come to consider the great importance to the 
kingdom of our common Master of their union with us by the adoption 
of the time-honored standards to which we adhere. 

In the conference with the committee of the Southern branch 
of the Presbyterian church their only proposition was that we 
should take the Westminster Confession unchanged. In the con- 
ference with the representatives of the other branch of the Pres- 
byterian church six or seven years afterward, nothing was offered 
our committee but the Westminster Confession unchanged. In a 
movement originated by individuals in California, the Presbyterian 
synod on the Pacific coast proposed that the Cumberland Presbyte- 
rian synod be consolidated with it on the basis of the Westmin- 
ster Confession unchanged. What ground individual members of 
our church gave our dear Presbyterian brethren to encourage them 
to make such offers is an inquiry whose investigation would not 
be for our edification. 

The Assembly of 1874 was rendered memorable by the visit of 
Dr. James Morrison and Dr. Fergus Ferguson, corresponding dele- 
gates from the Evangelical Union Church of Scotland. The pro- 
found scholarship of Dr. Morrison made him a fitting companion 



Chapter XLIL] SEVERAL GENERAL ASSEMBLIES. 453 

for Dr. Beard, and it was interesting to see how these two scholars 
"took to each other." 

Ferguson is a genial, witty man, and a thorough Scotchman. 
A preacher who had been chaplain in the Southern army was Fer- 
guson's room-mate. General Holland, at whose house they were 
quartered, had been a commander in the Northern army. The 
two army men became warm friends at their first meeting, and 
they showed great fondness for talking over war experiences. Fer- 
guson listened in amazement. At last he broke forth with his 
strong Scotch accent: "I don't understand it, General. Just a 
little while ago he was preaching to the soldiers, and you were 
shooting at him. Now here you both are cheek by jowl together, 
like the best friends in the world. ' ' Yes, and the best friends in 
the world they are still, whether a Scotchman can understand it or 
not. But they are not any warmer friends to each other than they 
both are to that quaint, original, genial son of Caledonia, who 
published a pleasant little book about his trip to Springfield. 

The custom of sending corresponding delegates to bear frater- 
nal greetings to General Assemblies and conferences was then at 
its zenith. For fourteen years it had been growing. The churches 
which generally had representatives on the floor of our Assembly 
were the Presbyterian (both branches), the I/utheran, the Evangel- 
ical Union, the Colored Cumberland Presbyterian, the Congrega- 
tional, and sometimes others. 

The address of the Rev. J. S. Hays, corresponding delegate 
from the Presbyterian church in the United States of America 
to the Cumberland Presbyterian Assembly of 1874, is here pre- 
sented: 

For two reasons no service could be more agreeable to me than that 
of being the bearer to you of the Christian salutations of that branch 
of the church to which I belong. In the first place, after observing 
the spirit and temper of my church toward you as manifested in our 
General Assembly one year ago, I am able to present these greetings 
without a single misgiving as to the sincerity and cordiality of those for 
whom I speak. And then the old animosities that were engendered 
by the separation which took place before we were born have all been 
happily buried and forgotten. There is but little diversity and much in 
common in our history and doctrines and discipline. We serve the 



454 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

same Master and fight against the same enemy in the hope of the same 
glorious reward. 

In a communication received by the Presbyterian General Assem- 
bly a year ago, you were pleased to speak of us as the mother church. 
I am happy to reciprocate the compliment and assure you, in return, of 
the mother's great pride in recognizing her daughter. It is true, I pre- 
sume, that some of our very proper people regard the daughter in her 
religious enjoyments sometimes as a little demonstrative, as possibly 
some of your more demonstrative people regard the mother as a little 
too sedate. It is also true, perhaps, that some of our very orthodox 
people regard your belief as a little flexible, as doubtless some of your 
flexible people regard the mother a little rigid. Such differences we 
may expect, but I assure you that there is on our part a deep, strong 
current of respect, affection, and love such as a mother feels for her 
child. 

When your representative, Dr. A. J. Baird, one year ago in our 
General Assembly, expressed a desire for the formation of a stronger 
bond of union between us — a desire, indeed, for organic union if it 
could be satisfactorily accomplished — his words were met in our As- 
sembly with a round of applause, the meaning of which it was impos- 
sible to misunderstand. Upon the spot and without a dissenting voice 
a committee was appointed to meet and confer with a similar commit- 
tee from your own body for the purpose of ascertaining if such a union 
could be effected. We have not yet heard the report of that commit- 
tee; but it is understood that it was only a royal courtship, not a wed- 
ding nor an engagement for a wedding. Perhaps the committees were 
right about it. We have had a wedding of that sort in our house re- 
cently. There are those among us — and I am free to confess that I am 
one of them — who have never been able to see any indispensable 
necessity for organic union in order to genuine co-operation and the 
most cordial fraternal relations. I understand that many of you hold 
the same opinion. 

Now, what sort of unity in the church of Christ would be pro- 
ductive of the greatest amount of efficiency and fraternity, is a question 
that can not be passed over lightly or easily by our corresponding com- 
mittees. No more important or delicate question is now before the 
church. However it may be settled, I am sure that there is a deep and 
wide- spread desire in my own church for some such organic union as 
that which was suggested to you by the memorial of Drs. Crosby, Mc- 
Cosh, and others in regard to union among Presbyterians. For such a 
union, especially with your church, we are ready to labor and pray. If 
at any future time a full organic union can be effected on terms alike 
honorable and agreeable to all, we will thoroughly rejoice. If not, we 






Chapter XLIL] SEVERAL GENERAL ASSEMBLIES. 455 

will still stand side by side and shoulder to shoulder with you in the 
strife against evil, and we will defer our little differences about election 
and other matters until we pass beyond the vale and sit at the feet of 
Jesus, where we will enjoy better instruction than that which we now 
receive from the lips of a Beard or a Hodge. 

I was intensely interested yesterday in hearing your educational and 
missionary reports read. With many of the statements I was highly 
gratified, and when I make my report to my own General Assembly I 
shall try to convey to them the same impression that was made upon 
my mind while I listened. 

When we, as Presbyterians, look out upon this broad land and ob- 
serve the millions that are swarming into it, and when we look out 
upon the broader field, which is the world, and hear the cries that come 
to us for help which it is impossible for us to give, it is with the pro- 
foundest interest that we watch the increasing strength and hail the 
rising power of vigorous young churches like your own, marching 
under the same banner, calling themselves by the same name, and pro- 
claiming substantially the same faith. 

Laying upon your table the minutes of our last General Assembly, 
in which you will see an exhibit of our present condition and future 
prospects, permit me to close as I commenced, by tendering to you the 
fraternal greetings and the cordial sympathies of the Presbyterian 
church in the United States of America. 

The Presbyterian church (Old School) sent its first delegate to 
the Cumberland Presbyterian General Assembly in i860. Dele- 
gates came regularly after that. By and by the churches generally 
concluded to convey these fraternal greetings by letter, and not 
send delegates in person. Only the colored Cumberland Presbyte- 
rians now send corresponding delegates to our Assembly, and there 
exist special reasons in their case for still keeping up the old 
custom. 

The Assembly of 1875 met at Jefferson, Texas. An interesting 
item in the business of this meeting was the presentation to the 
Assembly, by Joseph W. Allen, of Nashville, of an elegant gavel, 
made from wood which grew on the McAdow farm near the spot 
where the first Cumberland Presbyterian presbytery was organized. 

The Assembly of 1876 met at Bowling Green, Kentucky; that 
of 1877 at Lincoln, Illinois. At the Assembly of 1878, which was 
held at Lebanon, Tennessee, Caruthers Hall, one of the buildings 
of Cumberland University, was dedicated. 



45^ Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

The Assembly of 1879, at Memphis, Tennessee, introduced one 
new feature. It set apart a whole day for the discussion of topics 
connected with Sunday-schools. In actual Sunday-school work 
our people were doing far too little, and though we have since 
then made decided improvement, yet the statistical report for 1886 
shows only a little over half as many Sunday-school scholars as 
members of the church. Not until 1883 was it decided to have a 
general superintendent of Sunday-schools for the whole church. 
Dr. M. B. DeWitt was elected to this office, but as no provisions 
were made for his salary, and as his time was fully employed with 
his duties as a pastor, he was unable to devote himself to this 
work. He resigned in 1886. The Rev. J. H. Warren, his suc- 
cessor, has done good service, collecting many valuable statis- 
tics and preparing the way for a greater work in the future. One 
collection each year from all the congregations in the church, to be 
taken up on a Sunday designated as " Children's Day," is hereafter 
to be devoted to the payment of the salary of the general superin- 
tendent and the support of Sunday-school interests. 

Dr. E. D. Morris, corresponding delegate from the Presbyterian 
church (Northern), delivered an address in the Cumberland Pres- 
byterian Assembly of 1879, at Memphis, Tennessee, which for 
sound sense and a rare combination of unflinching fidelity to his 
own church, along with the noblest liberality toward others, is 
deserving of special mention. While he called in question the 
wisdom of any attempt to unite all Presbyterians in one organic 
body, and expressed doubts about the utility of such large bodies 
even were they one in faith, calling them u too unwieldy to be 
efficient, too proud to be endured, ' ' he yet declared it desirable for 
all Presbyterians to "think less about their differences and more 
of their vital points of agreement in doctrine and order. ' ' 

The Assembly of 1880 was held at Evansville, Indiana, and by 
a sort of averaging of dates it was agreed to celebrate this as its 
semi-centennial meeting. Our first Assembly was organized in 
1829, b u t there had been two years in which no Assembly met. 
This semi-centennial celebration called forth numerous historical 
addresses. These were published in a neat little pamphlet pre- 
pared by the stated clerk, the Hon. John Frizzell. 



Chapter X.LIL] SEVERAL GENERAL ASSEMBLIES. 457 

The Woman's Board of Foreign Missions was organized at this 
meeting. While there had been suggestions and resolutions look- 
ing toward such an organization years before, such propositions 
had until 1880 ended in words yielding no positive results. Our 
missionaries in Japan at last kept the subject ringing in the ears 
of our people, and Dr. W. J. Darby, of Bvansville, helped to press 
the matter until the organization became an accomplished fact. 
This board was located at Bvansville, Indiana. Just as soon as 
it was organized, a young lady from Missouri offered herself as 
a missionary to go to Japan, and was accepted. No part of our 
ecclesiastical machinery works more successfully or yields larger 
results of good than this board with its numerous auxiliaries and 
children's bands. Its annual receipts have increased from a little 
over $2,000 for the first year, to almost $6,800 for the year ending 
May, 1887. It has now five missionaries in Japan. It has estab- 
lished a school for the education of Japanese girls. It also assists 
in mission work in Mexico and among the Indians, and is steadily 
extending its operations and influence. 

The first Cumberland Presbyterian Board of Missions ever 
organized (1818) was a woman's board, and at different times 
there were local boards of the same character. One such orgai> 
ization is mentioned in the following letter found in the Watch- 
man and Evangelist, a Cumberland Presbyterian paper published 
at Louisville, Kentucky, thirty years ago: 

Lebanon, Tenn., November 25, 1857. 
Mr. Editor — I am pleased to read in your paper — nay, the expres- 
sion does not do justice to my feelings — I am delighted, overjoyed, at 
the movement of the ladies, members of our church in your city. In- 
deed, they have set a noble example, which I trust may be followed by 
the ladies of many other churches. "A female foreign missionary soci- 
ety" according to the plan of that lately formed in Louisville, ar\d for 
the object there specified, as well as other similar objects which will 
doubtless be presented, might be formed in every congregation. This 
would rejoice pious hearts, be approved by the great Head of the 
church, and, being crowned with the divine blessing, might accomplish 
results the extent and glory of which eternity alone would reveal. 
What is more natural than to see the followers of Jesus Christ laboring 
to advance the great object on which his heart is set ? As workers 
together with him, and loving him who has loved them and saved them 



458 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

from sin and the wrath to come, it is to be expected that they will de- 
sire to please him and exert themselves to save those for whom he shed 
his precious blood. The Savior, it is true, is able to convert the world 
without human instrumentalities; but it has pleased him to employ his 
people in the glorious work. The church is the grand instrument by 
the labors and sacrifices of which the Son , of God is to have the 
heathen for an inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for a 
possession. F. R. Cossitt. 

The custom of organizing and maintaining such societies had 
fallen into neglect. The Assembly's action in 1880 gave it new 
form and new life. 

Growing out of a resolution presented to the General Assembly 
of 1880, which was referred to the standing committee on fraternal 
relations, a correspondence sprung up on the subject of organic 
union with the Evangelical Lutheran church. Committees were 
appointed, but they did not meet for a joint conference. The cor- 
respondence between the Rev. F. Springer, D. D. , chairman of the 
Lutheran committee, and the Rev. J. P. Sprowls, D.D., chairman 
of the Cumberland Presbyterian committee, developed the fact that 
while both churches desired closer and more hearty fraternal rela- 
tions, neither of them was ready for organic union. 1 

By the Assembly of 1881, which met at Austin, Texas, meas- 
ures of far-reaching significance were adopted. The constitution 
of the Presbyterian Alliance was approved, and "our Confession 
of Faith was submitted as indicating our harmony with the Con- 
sensus of the Reformed Confessions. ' ' Committees were appointed 
to revise the Confession of Faith. The Board of Ministerial Re- 
lief was organized. The national council of the Cherokee Indians 
was memorialized to set apart lands for a Cumberland Presbyterian 
mission school. A memorial page in the Assembly's Minutes 
was set apart to the memory of Dr. Richard Beard. This was 
the first time in the history of the Cumberland Presbyterian church 
that such a tribute was paid to one of its members. A similar 
memorial has since been accorded to the Hon. R. L. Caruthers. 

The next Assembly, 1882, which met at Hunts ville, Alabama, 
elected delegates to the General Presbyterian Alliance, leaving that 

1 See Minutes of General Assembly, 1880, p. 38; 18S2, pp. 30,96; 1883, pp. 30, 31. 



Chapter XLIL] SEVERAL GENERAL ASSEMBLIES. 459 

council to decide concerning the harmony or want of harmony of 
the Cumberland Presbyterian creed with the Consensus of the Re- 
formed Confessions. A new -committee to co-operate with the col- 
ored Cumberland Presbyterians in establishing and endowing a 
school was appointed. 

This Assembly spent most of its sessions in considering the 
proposed new Confession of Faith, which was submitted to it by 
the committees appointed the year before. After thoroughly re- 
viewing the work of the committees, and making various changes 
and amendments, this General Assembly approved the revised 
book and transmitted it to the presbyteries for their action. 

At the Assembly of 1883, held at Nashville, Tennessee, it was 
announced that one hundred of the one hundred and sixteen pres- 
byteries had approved this revised Confession. In sixty-one pres- 
byteries the vote was unanimous, and in seven there was but one 
dissenting voice. One presbytery protested against the revision; 
a majority in nine presbyteries voted against its adoption; three did 
not report, and three presented memorials suggesting changes or 
asking postponement. The new "Constitution and Rules of Dis- 
cipline," and the "General Regulations, Directory for Worship, 
and Rules of Order ' ' were approved by one hundred and six of the 
presbyteries. The General Assembly then declared that ' ' the Con- 
fession of Faith and Government of the Cumberland Presbyterian 
church had been constitutionally changed," and that the revised 
Confession should thereafter "be of binding authority upon the 
churches. ' ' 

In 1883 the Hon. John Frizzell, stated clerk, resigned, and T. C. 
Blake, D.D., was appointed in his place. The Assembly of 1884, 
which met at McKeesport, Pennsylvania, chose Mr. Frizzell as 
its moderator, he being the first ruling elder ever elected to that 
position. 

At the next Assembly, which convened at Bentonville, Arkan- 
sas, after the opening sermon, which was preached by J. M. Gill, 
D.D., Mr. Frizzell, on retiring from the moderator's chair, delivered 
an address abounding in valuable suggestions about the business 
affairs of the Assembly. He took strong ground in favor of some 
provisions for regulating the work of evangelists, condemning all 



460 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

that class of lay evangelism which is under no regular ecclesiastical 
appointment. 

At different times in this period, as well as in former periods, 
the General Assembly bore strong testimony against card playing, 
theater going, and dancing. The language of one deliverance on 
dancing was as follows: 

Resolved, by this General Assembly, as expressed by former Assem- 
blies, That the practice of promiscuous dancing as an amusement by 
professed Christians, as well as attendance upon such places of amuse- 
ment, is hereby declared to be inconsistent with Christian profession 
and the pure and sacred obligations of our holy religion; and that pres- 
byteries and church sessions are advised that members persisting in 
such a practice are proper subjects of church discipline. 

The meaning of " promiscuous ' ' dancing was discussed at the 
time, and was defined to be dancing in which both sexes participate. 

In 1874 the Board of Publication bought the Banner of Peace 
for $10,000, the Citmberland Presbyterian for $13,000, and the 
Texas Cumberland Presbyterian for $2,500, filling out the unex- 
pired subscriptions of each. The Sunday-school Gem and the 
Theological Medium had been purchased in 1872. All the weekly 
papers were consolidated under the name of the Cumberland Pres- 
byterian. The consolidated organ was located at Nashville, and 
the Rev. J. R. Brown, D. D. , was appointed editor. 

The Board of Ministerial Relief, though not organized until 
1 88 1, has done valuable work in providing for the wants of men 
who have worn their lives out in half-paid labors for the church. 
The self-sacrificing services of these veteran soldiers of the Cross 
have been worth a thousand times more than all the pay they ever 
received or can ever receive from man. This board was located at 
Evansville, Indiana. The Rev. W. J. Darby, pastor of the Cum- 
berland Presbyterian church in that city, was the prime mover in 
securing its organization. Articles of corporation were obtained 
for it in October, 1881. Its receipts during the first year were less 
than $600. Its total receipts for the year ending May, 1887, were 
nearly $5, 500. It has a permanent fund of $3, 500. The number 
of persons receiving aid has increased from four, who were helped 
during the first year, to forty-three now on the roll of beneficiaries. 



Chapter XLIL] SEVERAL GENERAL ASSEMBLIES. 461 

The boards of tlie church all made good progress in this period. 
The Board of Publication, through the aid of contributions from 
the churches, paid off the immense debt created by purchasing 
papers and periodicals published by individuals, as well as all the 
debts for presses and fixtures. It also gave, by order of the Assem- 
bly, one thousand dollars to meet expenses incurred in connection 
with the revision of the Confession of Faith. 

The new books written and published by ministers or members 
of the Cumberland Presbyterian church in this period are not 
numerous. The themes of the volumes issued are theological, 
biographical, educational, and practical. No devotional books 
have made their appearance. There is a wide gap here for our 
writers to fill. Tracts that will strengthen and build up church 
members in Christian life are greatly needed. One little book to 
guide disciples in the Christian life — u lights on the Way," by 
Dr. J. R. Brown — was issued in 1879. The wor ^ of publishing 
Sunday-school books has made some little progress. A few relig- 
ious stories constitute the principal additions. Works to guide the 
young unto salvation, to train hearts in love* to Jesus, to develop 
the Christian life, to foster faith, and build up souls in real conse- 
cration — not works to fascinate by questionable fictions — are what 
our Sunday-schools need. Such books are likely to find the largest 
sales. Frances Ridley Havergal's books are an illustration. Of 
these millions of copies have been sold, and there is no cessation in 
the demand. At first her publisher protested against the subjects 
she had chosen, and proposed some world-pleasing substitute, saying 
that books on the themes she had selected would not be salable. 
The results show that God still rules. His presence and blessings 
are with those whose labors are " ever, only, all for Jesus." Let 
one little book, or tract, or periodical, be so filled with God's truth 
and God's Spirit that conversions constantly follow its circulation, 
and no human power can long shut it up within denominational 
boundaries. To write one such book as "Kept for the Master's 
Use" is far better than to found an empire, or revolutionize all 
human sciences. 

It remains to speak of the relations of the Cumberland Presby- 
terian church to the Presbyterian Alliance. The plan for this 



462 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

"general council of all Presbyterian bodies throughout the world" 
was formed at the meeting of the Evangelical Alliance in New 
York city, in 1873. ^ n response to a communication from the 
General Assembly of the Presbyterian church in the United States 
of America, inviting the Cumberland Presbyterian church to par- 
ticipate in this * ( Ecumenical Council of Presbyterians, ' ' our Assem- 
bly in 1874 appointed "a committee to confer with similar com- 
mittees from other Presbyterian Assemblies to arrange for such a 
Council." This committee never reported. In 1875 our Assembly 
appointed the Rev. W. E. Ward, D. D. , to attend the ' ' Presbyterian 
Alliance to meet in Eondon." At this Eon don conference, which 
began July 21st, 1875, there were sixty-four commissioners present, 
representing twenty- two Presbyterian organizations; but as Dr. 
Ward failed to be present, the Cumberland Presbyterian church 
had no representative in this initial meeting, and, therefore, did 
not become one of the churches originally composing the Alliance. 
The commissioners in attendance agreed upon a basis of union, and 
adopted a constitution, designating the body as ' ' The Alliance of 
the Reformed Churches Throughout the World holding the Pres- 
byterian System," and providing that "Any church organized on 
Presbyterian principles, which holds the supreme authority of the 
scriptures of the Old and New Testaments in matters of faith and 
morals, and whose creed is in harmony with the Consensus of the 
Reformed Confessions, shall be eligible for admission into the Alli- 
ance. ' ' 

The first regular meeting of the Alliance under this constitution 
was held in Edinburgh, Scotland, beginning July 4, 1877, but no 
Cumberland Presbyterian delegates were in attendance. None had 
been appointed. Our General Assembly in 1880 appointed nine 
representatives to attend the Alliance's regular meeting, which was 
to convene at Philadelphia, September 23d of that year. Only two 
of these, the Rev. W. H. Black, and Mr. John R. Rush, presented 
themselves for admission. The Committee on Credentials reported 
against the admission of the two delegates. The report said : 

We are constrained to adopt this resolution by the absence of suf- 
ficient evidence that the Cumberland church now accept the doctrinal 
basis of the Alliance, and by the terms of Article II. of the Constitution, 



Chapter XLII.] SEVERAL GENERAL ASSEMBLIES, 463 

which restricts the Alliance to churches whose creeds are in harmony 
with the Consensus of the Reformed Confessions. 

No one in the Council seemed to comprehend the importance of 
this report, when it was first presented by the committee, and it 
was adopted without discussion; but on the following day the ques- 
tion was re- opened, and led to an exciting debate. One leading 
member argued that these delegates could not be admitted because 
the church they represented did not accept the whole of the West- 
minster Confession. Another argued that because the committees 
on organic union between Cumberland Presbyterians and Southern 
Presbyterians had, in their conference at Memphis, in 1867, failed 
to agree, therefore Cumberland Presbyterians had no right to seats 
in the Council. But many of the best men in the Alliance, repre- 
senting both Europe and America, argued in favor of the admission 
of our delegates. After this matter had been before the Alliance 
for several days, the following was adopted in lieu of the report of 
the Committee on Credentials: 

Resolved, That the Council are unable, hoc statu, to admit as mem- 
bers brethren representing churches whose relations to the Constitution 
have not been explained and can not now be considered. 

This, as a leading religious paper remarked at the time, kept 
the delegates out without committing the Alliance permanently to 
the rejection of the church they represented. In his report to our 
General Assembly, the Rev. W. H. Black said: 

You are already acquainted with the facts concerning the rejection 
of your delegates, ostensibly, because our Assembly had not taken the 
necessary regular steps toward admission; but really, as your delegate 
thinks, because some of the members of the Alliance considered the 
doctrines of the Cumberland Presbyterian church out of harmony with 
the Consensus of the Reformed Confessions. 

This matter awakened a lively interest, both in this country 
and Europe, and was widely discussed by the press. There was, 
among the more liberal members of the Alliance, much dissatisfac- 
tion with the result. The Cumberland Presbyterian General As- 
sembly at its next meeting, in 1881, after formally adopting the 
Constitution of the Alliance, and submitting our Confession of 
Faith, u as indicating our harmony with the Consensus of the 



464 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

Reformed Confessions," appointed a committee, "to consider trie 
subject in the light of future developments, and to report to the 
next Assembly. ' ' The report of this committee, which was unani- 
mously adopted by the General Assembly of 1882, stated the par- 
ticulars 1 in which the founders of the Cumberland Presbyterian 
church dissented from the Westminster Confession, and then added: 

By these exceptions it will be seen that we have an amended form 
of the Westminster Confession of Faith, and if this puts us out of har- 
mony with the Consensus of the Reformed Confessions, we will be 
glad to have the fact clearly and unequivocally stated. That this may 
be certainly done by the next Council, we recommend that you appoint 
delegates to the next meeting of the Alliance in the city of Belfast, 
Ireland, in 1884. 

The next year our Assembly adopted an address, submitting to 
the Alliance "Our Confession of Faith and Government," and 
saying to that Council: "If the difference between our statements 
of doctrine and those of the Westminster Confession of Faith is 
inconsistent with our being represented in your body, you will so 
decide. ' ' 

Twenty-five delegates had been appointed to attend the meeting 
of the Alliance at Belfast, which was to convene June 24th, 1884. 
Twelve of the number were present at that meeting. The first 
important item before this Council was the report of a committee 
appointed four years before to define the Consensus of the Reformed 
Confessions. This committee announced that, after diligent in- 
quiry, the conclusion had been reached that it was inexpedient to 
attempt a statement of the creed on which the churches composing 
the Alliance were united. It had been discovered that the Presby- 
terian churches in Continental Europe were not in harmony with 
the Westminster Confession of Faith in many important particulars, 
and it was well known that even the United Presbyterian Church 
of Scotland had found it necessary to adopt an explanatory clause, 
to which candidates for ordination were required to subscribe, rather 
than to the simple Confession. 

Much interest was felt in the probable result of the application 
of our delegates for admission. So great was the demand for Cum- 

1 See page 99 of this history. 





Rev. R. Beard. D. D. 






-rf. 







Rev. A.J. Bai rd, D. D. 



Rev. S G.Burney, D. D. 



Chapter XLIL] SEVERAL GENERAL ASSEMBLIES. 465 

berland Presbyterian Confessions of Faith, that a Belfast firm 
printed a new edition of three thousand copies of that book. The 
Committee on the Reception of Churches was enlarged from three 
to seventeen members, representing all shades of opinion and all 
parts of the world. After due deliberation this committee unani- 
mously agreed upon the following report, which was presented to 
the Council: 

Respecting the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in the United 
States of America, the following deliverance was unanimously adopted: 

Whereas, The Cumberland Presbyterian Church has adopted the 
Constitution of the Alliance; 

Whereas, It was one of the churches which was invited to assist 
in the formation of the Alliance in 1875; 

Whereas, It has now, as on previous occasions, made application 
for admission, and has sent delegates to the present meeting; 

Whereas, Further, as declared by the first meeting of the Council, 
the responsibility of deciding whether they ought to join the Alliance 
should rest on the churches themselves, your committee recommends to 
the Council, without pronouncing any judgment on the church's revision 
of the Westminster Confession and Shorter Catechism, to admit the 
Cumberland Presbyterian church into the Alliance, and to invite the 
delegates now present to take their seats. 

The Rev. Dr. Martin, of Kentucky, moved to reject the report, 
and made a lengthy speech against the reception of our delegates. 
A heated debate followed which lasted three hours, and in which 
the representatives from the Southern Presbyterian church took 
the lead in opposing the report of the committee. Men represent- 
ing the best thought in the several churches composing the Alli- 
ance, took strong grounds in its favor. Among these were Dr. 
Briggs and Dr. John Hall, of New York; Professor B. D. Morris, 
of Cincinnati; Professor Calderwood, of Edinburgh; Principal Mc- 
Vicar, of Montreal; and Dr. Brown and Dr. Story, of Scotland. 
Dr. Monod, of France, warned the Council that if the Cumberland 
Presbyterians were rejected the continental churches would feel 
themselves bound to withdraw from the Alliance. 1 Less than 
twenty members of the Council voted in favor of Dr. Martin's 
motion. On motion of the Rev. T. W. Chambers, D.D., of New 

1 Report in Cumberland Presbyterian, July 24, 1884. 
30 



466 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period, vi. 

York, the closing part of Committee's report, was made to read as 
follows, and with this amendment was adopted: 

The Council, without approving of the church's revision of the 
Westminster Confession and of the Shorter Catechism, admit the Cum- 
berland Presbyterian church into the Alliance, and invite the delegates 
now present to take their seats. 

Our delegates, in their report to the next Assembly (1885), said: 

Dr. Chambers' amendment was carried by a vote of 112 to 78. 
Those voting against Dr. Chambers' amendment were in favor of ad- 
mitting our church unconditionally. Those voting for the amendment 
desired the admission of the church "without approving our revision 
of the Westminster Confession of Faith." After due deliberation and 
consultation, we decided to accept seats in the Council and report our 
action to you. The action of the Council in this matter gave great sat- 
isfaction to its members. . . . We take special pleasure in bearing testi- 
mony to the cordial and hearty reception our delegates received, both 
from members of the Council and the citizens of Belfast. . . . We recom- 
mend that you continue to fraternize with this great and powerful 
organization intended to promote the welfare of our common Presby- 
terianism. 

The General Assembly (1885) adopted the following report on 
this subject: 

Your committee has fully considered the report of your delegates to 
the Pan-Presbyterian Council, also the official communication from the 
clerk of the Council, and unanimously recommend that you adopt the 
following preamble and resolutions: 

Whereas, The Council was neither asked nor expected to express 
approval of our Confession of Faith, but to decide whether it is in har- 
mony with the Consensus of the Reformed churches; and, 

Whereas, The Council decided to admit the Cumberland Presby- 
terian church to membership in the Alliance, and our delegates to seats 
in the Council, thereby placing the Alliance upon a basis not inconsist- 
ent with our creed; therefore, 

Resolved, 1. That this new evidence of a growing catholicity among 
the members of the great Presbyterian family is hailed with pleasure 
by this General Assembly representing the Cumberland Presbyterian 
church. 

2. That we, as a denomination of Christians, continue to fraternize 
cordially with the liberal and progressive churches composing the Alli- 
ance, endeavoring, in the true spirit of unity, with them to promote the 
gospel's advancement throughout the world. 



Chapter XLIL] SEVERAL GENERAL ASSEMBLIES. 467 

Although the action by which our church was admitted to 
membership in the Alliance was not entirely pleasing to all our 
ministers and people, yet the General Assembly has shown no dis- 
position to recede from the steps it has taken in this matter. In 
its latest action the Assembly declared that the connection of our 
church with the Alliance has brought the system of doctrine 
taught by our people to the attention of the world as never 
before, and that the Alliance has become a medium of greater 
fraternity among the churches, drawing them together, promoting 
a better understanding among the great organizations constituting 
the Presbyterian family, and promising to become the medium of 
practical co-operation in foreign mission fields. While it is felt 
that co-operation is needed, the indications are strong that the 
churches which most opposed the admission of Cumberland Pres- 
byterians to membership in the Alliance need us more than we 
need them. The noble words of Dr. B. D. Morris, of Lane Sem- 
inary, Cincinnati, Ohio, uttered in behalf of our people in the Coun- 
cil at Belfast, ought to endear him to all Cumberland Presbyte- 
rians forever. 

A sad event connected with the journey of the Cumberland 
Presbyterian delegates to the Belfast Council was the death of the 
Rev. A. J. Baird, D.D. His health had been failing for several 
months, but he was unwilling to give up his cherished purpose to 
attend the Alliance, and he hoped to be benefited by foreign 
travel. He, however, grew rapidly worse after leaving home, and 
at New York city, June 15, 1884, the day after his fellow-commis- 
sioners sailed, he breathed his last. By his eloquence, his winning 
personality, and his genial and loving spirit, as well as by his work 
as a pastor and revival preacher and a writer, he had won a place 
in the affections of our people which has been attained by few, and 
his death was mourned as a great loss to the church. 

The process of consolidating synods has gone on steadily 
throughout this period. Presbyteries, also, have in several in- 
stances been consolidated. So far as can be learned, the results 
in all these cases have been favorable. Large bodies are more 
powerful. 

The following new synods have been organized: Ozark (re- 



468 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

organized), 1871; Oregon and Kansas, 1875; Missouri Valley, 1877; 
Trinity, 1878. 

The following new presbyteries have appeared in the Assem- 
bly's Minutes: 

Ozark (reorganized) and Rocky Mountain, 187 1; Nolin, Nebras- 
ka, and Louisiana, 1873; Hot Springs and Magazine, 1874; Purdy, 
Republican Valley, and Bosque, 1875; Kirkpatrick and Hill, 1876; 
Wichita and Graham, 1878; Springville, Albion, Missouri, Burrow, 
and La Crosse, 1880; Mayfield and San Saba, 1882; Gregory, 1883; 
Bonham, Cherokee, and McDonald, 1884; Florida and Buffalo Gap, 
1885. Louisiana and McDonald are disbanded presbyteries re- 
stored. The dates given are the dates when the first mention of 
these presbyteries is found in the Minutes of the Assembly. 

The following table shows the statistics for different parts of 
this period: 



Year. 


Ministers. 


Members. 


Sunday-school Pupils. 


Contributions. 


1S71 


I,ll6 


9 6 >335 


26,466 


$136,231 


1875 


1,232 


98,242 


44,912 


$295,886 


1880 


1,386 


111,863 


54^3 


$3 2 9>4 r8 


1886 


i»547 


i3 8 »5 6 4 


74*576 


$553M3 



The contributions have increased more than four hundred per 
cent., and the number of Sunday-school pupils nearly three hun- 
dred per cent. The progress in other things is also encouraging. 

The colored Cumberland Presbyterians have made rapid growth 
in numbers, but their statistics are not included in this table. One 
thing which has always been characteristic of the growth of the 
Cumberland Presbyterian church is that it represents not prose- 
lytes from other churches, but souls won from the kingdom of 
darkness. For the few proselytes coming to us from others we can 
show a little army of persons who were converted at our meetings, 
and who afterward joined some other denomination. Such a 
record is worth more than longer lists of names on the church roll. 
May God grant us grace in all the coming years to be more in ear- 
nest to bring souls to Christ than to build up denominational 
strength ! 



Chapter XLIIL] MISSIONS. 469 



CHAPTER XLIII. 



MISSIONS. 

I gave, I gave my life for thee, 
What hast thou given for me ? 

—F. R. //. 

WHILE still far behind its duty in missionary work, the 
Cumberland Presbyterian church has made great progress 
therein during the last ten years. Private missions, presbyterial 
and synodical missions, and itinerant missions under the church 
board have been numerous, and it is not possible to give even in 
outline the history of all these. 

In city mission work the results during the last fourteen years 
have been far more encouraging than in any former period. Since 
1870 a large proportion of our mission churches in cities and towns 
have grown strong enough to dispense with the assistance of the 
board. Among these are two in St. Louis, one made up of Ger- 
man-speaking and the other of English-speaking Cumberland 
Presbyterians. The latter, which, to distinguish it from the other, 
was designated as the c 'American ' ' mission, has had a remarkable 
history. The Rev. J. G. White became missionary at St. Louis, 
November, 1848, and continued in this work until i860, when he 
was succeeded by the Rev. L. C. Ransom. At the beginning of 
the civil war this mission had a growing congregation and a good 
house of worship located in a central and desirable part of the city. 
On the property, valued at $27,000, there was an embarrassing debt 
of nearly $10,000. Soon after the war commenced the missionary 
went to Alabama, and the little flock became shepherdless. The 
regular services were suspended, and the building was finally sold 
to meet the claims of creditors. 

Though the fruit of the toil and sacrifice of more than fifteen 
years was thus lost, efforts to revive the work were not given up. 
In the Assembly of 1865 the Committee on Missions recommended 



470 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

St. Louis as an important mission field, and stated that the congre- 
gation then had "an opportunity to purchase a comfortable and 
well-situated house of worship at reasonable rates." The next 
year the Board of Missions, at Alton, Illinois, reported that the 
Rev. F. M. Gilliam had been appointed to take charge of the St. 
Louis work, and that a plan for raising money by a joint stock 
company to purchase a house and lot had been adopted and was 
succeeding admirably. The missionary had been in the field as 
soliciting agent, and had secured subscriptions enough to pay for 
this property. He, however, for some reason not stated in the 
Minutes, resigned in October, 1866. 

About this time the board adopted a new, and what proved to 
be an unfortunate measure. A congregation known as the ' ' First 
Independent Church of St. Louis, ' ' which had grown out of a mis- 
sion Sunday-school, had a large and expensive house of worship in 
process of erection. Bight thousand dollars was needed to com- 
plete this building, and there was a debt of fifteen thousand dollars 
on it. The members of this church proposed to become Cumber- 
land Presbyterians, and to convey this property to our mission, on 
condition that the board would assume the debt. . This proposition 
was accepted, and the property already owned by the mission, as 
well as this new property, was mortgaged in order to borrow 
$20,000 to meet the pressing claims of the creditors of the Inde- 
pendent church, and to advance the work on the new building. 
December 12th, 1866, the Rev. J. H. Coulter, whose ministerial 
services had been temporarily secured by the mission, perfected 
the organization of the Cumberland Presbyterian congregation, 
and the formal union with the Independent congregation was 
effected February 17, 1867. The consolidated church then num- 
bered one hundred and fifteen members. The property acquired 
by the Cumberland Presbyterian mission before forming this union 
was sold, and the proceeds used in prosecuting the work on the new 
building. The basement was finished October, 1867, but to secure 
this result two thousand dollars more had been borrowed. Though 
the property was valued at forty-six thousand dollars, the debts be- 
gan to be pressing. The Rev. F. M. Gilliam, who had for a time 
resumed the charge of the work, had again resigned, and the Rev. 



Chapter XLIII.] MISSIONS. 471 

William S. Langdon had been appointed temporarily as missionary. 
In 1869 the board reported unforseen reverses. The payments of 
interest due had not been met by the board, and a large portion of 
those who had composed the Independent church had seceded and 
taken possession of the property. When the Assembly of 1870 
met, the "Independent" faction still held the building. To the 
Assembly of 1872 the board reported that all honorable means to 
get possession of the property or "to get back the money we had 
invested over and above the debts of the property," had been in 
vain. That portion of the congregation which had seceded had 
taken refuge in the Presbyterian church, and under the sanction 
of the St. Louis Presbytery captured the house. Both this presby- 
tery and the congregation which held the property acknowledged 
their moral obligation to repay the money our people had invested; 
but they not only failed to meet this obligation, but thwarted all 
the board's efforts to re-imburse itself. 

Abandoning all hope of success in this quarter, the board re- 
solved to begin a new work in another part of the city. Efforts 
were set on foot to secure ten thousand dollars to buy a lot and 
build a chapel. In May, 1873, the Rev. B. J. Gillespie was already 
soliciting funds for this purpose. In the summer of 1874 the 
board resolved to prosecute this work with renewed vigor, but 
1 ' with no hope of success in a day or a year. ' ' The Rev. C. H. 
Bell, D.D., was chosen to take charge of the work. Before the 
meeting of the Assembly of 1875, ten thousand dollars in notes 
and pledges had been secured. Dr. Bell and others diligently 
prosecuted the work of raising money; and the board, made wiser 
by its past experiments, promised ' ' to take no step until it had the 
money to pay for what was done. ' ' Through these years the mis- 
sionary, "when not engaged in soliciting funds, devoted his atten-* 
tion to looking up members and others in sympathy with the 
church, and to conducting services in various parts of the city." 
The congregation was organized, and took possession of its new 
chapel December 1, 1877. In May, 1879, this church had fifty- 
three in communion; and during the year ending with May, 1880, 
it not only paid its incidental expenses, but contributed nearly 
three hundred and fifty dollars toward the missionary's salary. At 



472 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

the close of 1880 Dr. Bell asked leave to retire from the work. 
His resignation took effect January 31, 1881, and the Rev. W. H. 
Black succeeded him immediately. This church became self-sup- 
porting January 1, 1882, and has since grown steadily in numbers 
and influence. The Rev. W. H. Black is still its pastor (1887). 

The lessons learned in connection with this St. Louis work and 
from similar efforts elsewhere have borne good fruit. Successful 
mission churches have grown up in a number of cities and towns, 
and the missionary work of the church has prospered as never be- 
fore. Among the city missions that have grown into successful 
churches during this period are one at Little Rock, Arkansas, one 
at Kansas City, Missouri, one at Sedalia, Missouri, and one at 
IvOgansport, Indiana. 

The Little Rock mission became self-supporting in 1875. Of 
this mission the board, in its report to the Assembly of 1876, said: 

The work at this place has made most gratifying progress spiritu- 
ally, and also financially, so that it has become self-sustaining as to the 
pastor's support. . . . The fruits which have rapidly attended this 
work, undertaken only a few years ago, are most encouraging, and are 
in large part, under God, due to the zeal and judgment of S. H. Buch- 
anan, D.D., the pastor. 

Dr. Buchanan is still pastor of this church. 

To the General Assembly of 1870 the Kansas City mission was 
reported as a new enterprise but lately received under the care of 
the board. Through the efforts of Lexington Presbytery, a neat 
and comfortable house of worship had been erected. The Rev. J. B. 
Sharp was missionary, and through his efficient labors, supported 
by contributions from the presbytery, the foundations of our church 
here were securely laid. He resigned in the fall of 1874. After- 
ward the Rev. C. P. Duvall for a time had charge of this mission. 
The Rev. B. P. Fullerton was called to this field in 1879, entering 
upon the work October 1st. He is still the pastor in charge. The 
church was declared self-sustaining October 8, 1883. A new and 
commodious house of worship was dedicated the day before. The 
work of this church continues to be greatly blessed. From the 
beginning this mission was under the direct care and support of 
the Lexington Presbytery. 



Chapter XLIIL] MISSIONS. 473 

The Rev. A. H. Stephens became missionary at Sedalia, Mis- 
souri, June 1, 1 88 1. Efforts to establish a Cumberland Presbyte- 
rian church in this growing city had been begun several years 
before. With a view of building a house of worship, a small sum 
of money had been raised, and was in the hands of a committee 
appointed by New Lebanon Presbytery; but prior to 1878 all 
efforts to build up a congregation had failed. In September of 
that year the Rev. J. T. A. Henderson, then of Knobnoster, Mis- 
souri, began to preach twice a month in this city without any 
appointment from the board or the presbytery, and at his own 
charges. He continued these services regularly for about two 
years, his compensation being less than his traveling expenses. 
During the years 1879 and 1880 a small frame church costing 
$2, 500 was erected with money collected by New Lebanon Presby- 
tery. The work, though under the charge of the Board of Mis- 
sions after 1881, was sustained by the contributions of this presby- 
tery. This congregation became self-supporting November 29, 
1885, at which time it dedicated a new and elegant church edifice. 
In May, 1886, it reported a membership of one hundred and thir- 
teen, and has since steadily grown in numbers and usefulness 
under the efficient pastorate of Mr. Stephens. The General As- 
sembly of 1886 was held at Sedalia. 

In the fall of 1875 the Board of Missions, at the earnest solic- 
itation of ministers and members of the church in Indiana, and 
after due investigation, resolved to plant a mission in Logansport, 
and appointed the Rev. A. W. Hawkins missionary. He took 
charge of the work November 1, 1875. Twelve or fourteen per- 
sons who had once been Cumberland Presbyterians were found in 
or near the city. A hall was rented and regular services held. Of 
his work at this time the missionary says: "I made my sermons 
in the early part of the week, and in the latter part of the week 
I went out and made a congregation to hear them." In May, 
1876, a church with thirty-five members was organized. In 1877 
a lot with a dwelling-house on it was purchased, and a comfortable 
church was built and dedicated. All the money used in erecting 
this building, except fifteen dollars sent from Pennsylvania, was 
raised at Logansport by the missionary, who though " cramped by 



474 



Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 



a support far too meager," continued to be " patient, persevering, 
and successful." 1 In February, 1885, he handed in his resigna- 
tion, but continued in charge of the work until the 8th of the fol- 
lowing April, at which time he was succeeded by the Rev. James 
Best, who continues to labor successfully in this field. This 
church was declared self-sustaining Sunday, May 9, 1886. 

At the beginning of the war there was at Chattanooga, Tennes- 
see, a flourishing Cumberland Presbyterian mission. In i860 this 
congregation reported ninety in membership, and it had c * a neat 
brick edifice, well located, and almost entirely paid for." The 
Rev. A. Templeton was missionary, and his work here had been 
most successful; but during the great civil conflict the members 
were scattered and the house greatly damaged. The work was re- 
sumed after the war closed, and in 1868 the little church had thirty 
members, and regular services were kept up. Rev. N. W. Motheral 
was then the missionary in charge, but for some reason he did not 
long continue in the work, and for several years the congregation 
was most of the time without a pastor. Then Rev. W. D. Chadick 
became missionary, and under his wise and energetic administration 
the congregation made gratifying progress for three or four years. 
By reason of failing health he gave up the work in December, 1877. 
Then after another period of change and uncertainty the Rev. W. 
H. Darnall, D.D., was appointed to take charge of this mission, 
and under his labors, which continued from March, 1880, to the 
fall of 1882, the work was again prosperous. After his retirement 
this church seems to have passed from under the care of the board, 
and was again much of the time without a pastor until April, 1885, 
when the Rev. B. J. McCrosky entered upon his successful labors 
in this field. During the time he had charge of the work a com- 
modious and beautiful church was erected, and the congregation 
entered upon a new career of growth and usefulness. He resigned 
July 15, 1887. 

Many other mission churches not less deserving of mention 
than those whose work has been thus briefly sketched have, dur- 
ing this period, grown into self-support and extended usefulness. 
Those described are but selections illustrating the character of our 

1 Report of the Board of Missions to the General Assembly of 1879. 



Chapter XLIIL] MISSIONS. 475 

home mission work. In the wide field extending from Pennsyl- 
vania to California, and from Iowa to Texas, scores of similar mis- 
sions have nourished, not only in towns and villages but in country 
places; not only under the supervision of the Board of Missions, 
but under the direction of synods or presbyteries, or of single con- 
gregations, or through the liberality or self-sacrifice of individual 
church members or ministers. 

The following is a list of some of the important and growing 
mission churches now under the care of the board, with the names 
of the missionaries : Allegheny, Pennsylvania, the Rev. J. H. Bar- 
nett; Louisville, Kentucky, the Rev. B. D. Cockrill; Knoxville, 
Tennessee, the Rev. J. V. Stephens; Birmingham, Alabama, the 
Rev. F. J. Tyler; St. Joseph, Missouri, the Rev. Alonzo Pearson; 
Springfield, Illinois, the Rev. S. Richards, D.D. ; Fort Scott, Kan- 
sas, the Rev. S. A. Sadler; Garden City, Kansas, the Rev. J. R. 
Lowrance; Fort Smith, Arkansas, the Rev. S. H. McElvain; San 
Antonio, Texas, the Rev.'W. B. Preston; Stockton, California, the 
Rev. T. A. Cowan; Meridian, Mississippi, the Rev. R. A. Cody; 
Walla Walla, Washington Territory, the Rev. W T . W. Beck. Of 
these missions, and others under the care of the board, Dr. Bell 
says, in a recent address: 1 

Some of these are nearly self-supporting, having good property un- 
incumbered; others have suitable buildings, and the work of gathering 
congregations is in progress; while some are earnestly seeking funds 
for the purchase of church homes preparatory to the commencement 
of preaching services. Never were the prospects so encouraging for 
obtaining denominational footing in centers of moral and commercial 
influence. 

Much of this increased success in missionary work has been 
due to the prudence and efficiency of those who have administered 
the affairs of the board. At the beginning of this period the work 
was under the immediate supervision of the Rev. R. S. Reed, sec- 
retary. He died early in the summer of 1871, and was succeeded 
by the Rev. J. B. Logan, D.D., who was for two years general 
superintendent and corresponding secretary. After this, beginning 

1 This address was delivered at the Cumberland Presbyterian State Sunday - 
6chool Encampment, at Pertle Springs, Missouri, August, 1877. 



476 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period VI. 

May 1, 1874, the Rev. E. B. Crisman, D.D., became superintendent 
and corresponding secretary, and the almost seven years during 
which he held this office were a period of increasing success in 
every department of mission work. Since February, 1881, the 
Rev. C. H. Bell, D.D., president of the board, has devoted his 
whole attention to the general management of missions, and in 
these years this cause has flourished as never before. 

In no other country on earth is the home missionary work so 
important as it is in the United States. New States are springing 
up, new populations are gathering. Vast communities are taking 
shape and setting into their final type so rapidly that it requires 
constant reading to keep up with their progress. The opportunity 
now open to home missions will never return. This is pre-emi- 
nently true in regard to the home mission work of Cumberland 
Presbyterians. We can not shift the responsibility. We stand 
nearest of all to these new States. The center of our strength and 
influence is in the West. Our own sons are among the pioneers 
who are pressing into these new fields. If we fall behind, and 
leave these rapidly - growing communities to be evangelized by 
other churches, we must forever stand charged with being false to 
our own children and our own King. 

Cumberland Presbyterians have missions among the Chicka- 
saw, the Choctaw, and the Cherokee Indians. There are two 
growing presbyteries in this field. Bethel Presbytery has eleven 
ordained ministers, and ten probationers. All but two of these are 
natives, and the work in that field is now mainly done by native 
preachers. This presbytery embraces the country of the Chicka- 
saws and Choctaws, and it has thirty-one congregations and five 
hundred and forty communicants. These two Nations are closely 
united, and form one missionary field. The churches in this pres- 
bytery are now nearly all self-sustaining. Leading men among 
the Indians are active members of our church, 'and attend our 
General Assemblies as delegates. One of the most interesting 
features of the Assembly of 1878 was the presence of Judge Chico 
as a representative from Bethel Presbytery. Our work among the 
Chickasaw and Choctaw Indians began in 1819, and has been kept 
up in some form ever since. The Rev. Calvin Robinson, a native, 



Chapter XLIII.J MISSIONS. 477 

the Rev. J. H. Dickerson, and the Rev. J. J. Smith are now our 
missionaries in Bethel Presbytery. All three are consecrated and 
successful workers. 

Although zealous Cumberland Presbyterian preachers have 
often visited the Cherokees and held meetings, yet it was but 
recently that the board sent permanent missionaries to that field. 
The first of these was the Rev. N. J. Crawford, in whose veins 
there is some Indian blood. He determined in 1876 to cast his lot 
among the Cherokees. More than four hundred conversions were 
reported as the result of his meetings prior to 1885. 

There are curious items about some of our missionaries in that 
field. The Rev. David Hogan had been preaching fifty years be- 
fore he determined to become a missionary. He had preached 
along with Finis Ewing in other days. With his own hands he 
closed Finis Ewing' s eyes when that hero of the Cross fell asleep 
in Jesus. x A most interesting thing it is to hear Hogan talk of 
his early experiences. He says: "My church is better known and 
held in higher esteem in heaven than it is on earth." When he 
was seventy-one years old he said to the Board of Missions: "If 
you will commission me as missionary to the Cherokee Indians, 
without salary, I will spend the rest of my days preaching to that 
people." The commission was given him, and now for more than 
three years he has been laboring in this mission field. 

The first Cumberland Presbyterian church among the Chero- 
kees was organized by N. J. Crawford in 1877. It is in the eastern 
part of the Cherokee country, and is known as the Prairie Grove 
congregation. There was a great revival among the Cherokees in 
1880 and 1881. 

In 1874 a Cherokee boy came to Cumberland University, Leb- 
anon, Tennessee, to prepare for the ministry. He was graduated 
in 1879, and is now in his native land preaching Jesus. His name is 
R. C. Parks. His churches now number over a hundred members. 
The Cherokee Presbytery was organized in February, 1884, at 
the residence of the Rev. R. C. Parks, Canadian District, Indian 
Territory. N. J. Crawford, David Hogan, and R. C. Parks were 
the original members. J. H. Kelley, licentiate, placed himself 

1 Memoranda furnished by Hogan. 






478 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

under the care of the presbytery at its organization. This presby- 
tery now has five ordained ministers, two probationers, and seven 
congregations, with nine out-stations. The aggregate number of 
communicants is four hundred and fifty. 

One of the schools in the Cherokee country is partially under 
the care of our Woman's Board of Missions — that is, this board 
has been giving it assistance. This school is known as Hogan In- 
stitute. Our native members and preachers have also aided in 
various other schools among the Cherokees. An item of interest 
connected with this presbytery is that a consecrated Christian 
young lady, Miss Bell Cobb, is its* stated clerk. In the manuscript 
history of this presbytery, prepared by this lady, the work of N. 
J. Crawford, R. C. Parks, J. H. Kelley, David Hogan, Laman Car- 
ter, and J. H. Pigman is described with a fullness of detail which 
can not be repeated here. This interesting narrative closes with 
some statements which are brief enough to be quoted: 

In May, 1886, the Rev. Joseph Smallwood, of the Methodist Epis- 
copal church, South, a full blood Cherokee Indian, was, by a commis- 
sion appointed by the presbytery, received as a minister in the Cum- 
berland Presbyterian church. All the ministers in this presbytery are 
now in the field and identified with the Cherokee people, and, under 
God, and by the help of his Holy Spirit, intend to maintain and advance 
the church's work among them. The Board of Missions has three mis- 
sionaries in the Cherokee Nation: the Rev. N. J. Crawford, with a 
salary of $25 per month; the Rev. R. C. Parks, with a salary of $8.33 
per month; and the Rev. David Hogan, without a salary. The presby- 
tery has one missionary in the field, the Rev. Joseph Smallwood, with 
a salary of $12.50 per month. 

Special mention must here be made of the Rev. B. F. Totten, of 
Arkansas Presbytery, who aided the Rev. N. J. Crawford in revival 
meetings in 1880-1 ; of the Rev. E. E. Baily, of Pennsylvania, who, at 
his own expense, labored through several revival seasons, not only 
among the Cherokee, but other tribes as well; of the Rev. E. M. Roach, 
of Arkansas Presbytery, who labored three months with the Rev. R. 
C. Parks and the Rev. N. J. Crawford in the summer and fall of 1885, 
being employed and sent by the Woman's Home Missionary Society 
of Boonsboro, Arkansas. We are, also, under many obligations to the 
Woman's Board of Foreign Missions, Evansville, Indiana, for five hun- 
dred dollars kindly sent us in October, 1885, for the purposes of church 
extension. 



Chapter XLIIL] MISSIONS. 479 

We predict a bright future for the Cumberland Presbyterian church 
in the Cherokee Nation. The intelligence of the people, the self-sacri- 
fice of the ministry, and the leadings of the Holy Spirit all point to the 
success of the church and the glorification of God in the salvation of 
this people. 

After the Board of Missions recalled the Rev. Edmond Weir 
from Liberia in 1868, and until it appointed the Rev. S. T. Ander- 
son, D.D., to go to the Island of Trinidad in 1873, it had no foreign 
mission under its care, unless we except the work among the Ameri- 
can Indians. The records during these years show that our people 
felt dissatisfied with this state of things. 

In 1870 the board declared that the time had come when the 
Assembly should at least ' ' begin to lay plans and devise means for 
active efforts in re-occupying the foreign field, ' ' and the General As- 
sembly of that year adopted a report which, after calling attention 
to the opportunities for mission work in Mexico and in the South 
American States, said, "The foreign field is open to us: so far as 
God enables us we should occupy it." 

In 1871 the declarations of the General Assembly indicate that 
there was in the minds of our people increasing interest in regard 
to the foreign work. The board was instructed to ascertain if 
possible the best method of entering upon this work, and was direct- 
ed to raise funds for this purpose. 

During the year following the board corresponded with persons 
in different parts of the world in order to elicit information to guide 
them in selecting a mission field. Among those who were thus 
written to was Dr. S. Irenseus Prime, of New York, who recommend- 
ed Japan as the heathen country "most accessible and least 
occupied by Christian churches," and whose, people in spite of "the 
strange and seemingly paradoxical position of the Japan govern- 
ment against Christianity," were eager to hear the gospel. 

The board had also received communications from N. H. Mc- 
Ghirk, M. D. , urging the claims of the Island of Trinidad in the 
West Indies. He was a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian 
church who had moved from Missouri to that island. He said that 
country, while nominally Catholic was really heathen, and urged the 
board to send one or two missionaries thither. 



480 v Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period, vi. 

A memorial came from Pennsylvania Synod entreating the 
Assembly of 1872 to move at once in the work of foreign missions. 
This synod had already made arrangements by which it was to 
send the Rev. M. I,. Gordon to Japan through the American Board. 
Increased contributions for the foreign work showed a growing in- 
terest in this subject throughout the church. In their report to this 
Assembly the board expressed their unanimous judgment, " after 
much reflection on the subject," that union with the American 
Board in the prosecution of mission work was not advisable on 
account of the great dissimilarity of doctrinal views between Cum- 
berland Presbyterians and those represented by that board ; adding 
that those united in the work through the American Board had 
1 i ever been regarded as strictly Calvanistic, while the very existence 
of the Cumberland Presbyterian church is a protest against the 
radical features of Calvanism." 

To the Assembly of 1873 it was announced that the Island of 
Trinidad and the capital of Venezuela, South America, had been 
selected as the mission fields most easily accessible and promising 
the quickest and surest results of good. One chief reason which 
influenced the board in making this choice was the expectation of 
coming into possession of an immense tract of land in Venezuela. 
This was part of a still larger tract which had been granted by the 
government of Venezuela to a company of which Dr. N. H. McGhirk 
was a member. This company had re-granted eight hundred square 
miles of their prospective domain to nine trustees for the use and 
benefit of the Cumberland Presbyterian church for the purpose of 
establishing and carrying on mission work in that country. " 

The Rev. S. T. Anderson, D.D., was appointed missionary in 
November, 1873, and he proceeded at once to the Island of Trini- 
dad. Dr. McGhirk was also appointed as a lay helper. Dr. An- 
derson soon after his arrival accepted an invitation to supply a 
vacant Presbyterian mission church in the city of San Fernando. 
This congregation was under the care of the Free Church of Scot- 
land. It gave Dr. Anderson ten dollars a week for his services and 
allowed him the free use of the manse, agreeing to continue this 
arrangement until the Free Church should send a man to fill the 

1 Minutes 1S73. p. 63. 



Chapter XLIIL] MISSIONS. 48 1 

vacancy. This gave our missionary a home and work at once, but, 
as it also gave him the largest part of his support, the liberality of 
the church at home was not developed by this mission as it might 
otherwise have been. Though there were several thousands of 
Hindus and Chinese on the Island of Trinidad and sixty or seventy 
thousand negroes, besides many Spaniards, Portuguese, French, 
English, and a few Americans, our missionaries and the board re- 
garded this island as but the starting point of their work. They 
believed Venezuela, among whose two millions of people there was 
not one Protestant missionary, to be the great mission field for our 
people: 

During the year preceding the General Assembly of 1875 ar- 
rangements were made by which Dr. Anderson became agent of the 
American Bible Society for the distribution of the Scriptures. Dr. 
McGhirk expected to move to the Continent and thus the work was 
to be extended to Venezuela. The board had been making diligent 
inquiiy about the half million of acres of Venezuelan land which 
had been granted to the church, and trying to perfect the title. 
But any expectations which may have been cherished of securing 
from this source the means of enlarging the mission work of the 
church failed to be realized. Though the board in 1876 expressed 
the opinion that this claim would "some day be valuable," yet 
neither the church nor the cause of missions has ever received any 
benefit from it. Missions have seldom been effectively helped by 
grants of land or princely endowments from States or governments. 
The preaching of the gospel among the heathen, as well as at home, 
must be sustained by the self-sacrificing efforts and direct gifts of 
consecrated Christians. 

In 1876 the board reported that the work in Trinidad and Ven- 
ezuela had not been prosecuted as intended when the mission was 
undertaken. The reason assigned was that it had been found im- 
possible ' ' to raise the means necessary to send two other men to 
accompany Dr. Anderson to Venezuela, which was the plan on 
which the work was begun." After laboring and waiting more 
than two years Dr. Anderson wrote to the board expressing a de- 
sire to return to the United States unless the needed re-inforcements 
could at once be sent. He stated also that the condition of his own 
3i 



482 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

health and that of his wife, as well as the necessity of educating 
his children made it his duty to return. At his own request his 
appointment as missionary expired with May, 1876. He returned 
to the United States, and the Trinidad and Venezuela mission was 
abandoned. 

But the growing missionary spirit of the church was not 
checked by this discouraging failure. In answer to a paper pre- 
sented to the Assembly of 1876, "recommending the cessation of 
all work in the foreign field," that body declared that the adop- 
tion of such a resolution would be "unwise and attended with 
dangerous consequences, ' ' and that ' ' we ought not to grieve the 
Spirit's yearnings for foreign lands." The Rev. J. B. Hail and the 
Rev. A. D. Hail had already been accepted "as candidates" for 
the foreign field, and were preparing to enter the work, though it 
had not yet been decided into what part of the heathen world they 
were to be sent. 

No series of events in the history of the church bears more dis- 
tinctly the marks of God's providential hand than that connected 
with the origin and progress of our denominational work in Japan. 
The seed was sown nearly thirty years before by a dying mother's 
prayer. It grew in the heart of one young man until other hearts 
received it, and until a whole church was awakened and blessed by 
it. The mother of M. L. Gordon died in Greene county, Penn- 
sylvania, when her son was yet an infant. On her death bed she 
consecrated this boy to the work of foreign missions. We do not 
know how often through the years of his youth thoughts of this 
work were awakened in his mind. At the breaking out of the war 
he enlisted in a Pennsylvania regiment and served three years. 
He was converted near the close of his term of enlistment on Mor- 
ris Island, South Carolina, during the siege, under General Gilmore, 
of the fortifications in the neighborhood of Charleston. In the 
autumn of 1864 he entered Waynesburg College, Pennsylvania, but 
afterward gave up his collegiate studies for a time and began the 
study of medicine. But his impressions that he ought to devote 
himself to the work of the ministry became so intense that he closed 
his medical books and returned to college determined to prepare 
himself to preach the gospel. He had in 1865 joined the Cumber- 



Chapter XLIII.] MISSIONS. 483 

land Presbyterian church, and in 1868 he became a candidate for 
the ministry in Pennsylvania Presbytery. After his graduation 
from Waynesburg College, and while he was in the Theological 
Seminary at Andover, Massachusetts, he decided to enter the for- 
eign field. His mother's prayers were at last ready to ripen into 
fruit. 

The following extract from the Minutes of the General Assembly 
of 1 87 1 show that he was in correspondence with the Cumberland 
Presbyterian Board of Missions in reference to the foreign work : 

A young brother of the Synod of Pennsylvania is consecrating him- 
self to this work, and is now offering himself to the board and asks to be 
sent to bear the glad tidings of salvation to poor dying sinners in heathen 
lands, but owing to our want of means we are not prepared to recom- 
mend such decided action on this subject as we would otherwise be 
pleased to do. 1 

The Pennsylvania Synod, which urged the appointment of Gor- 
don by the board, pledged its members to sustain him with their 
means and their influence. 2 Without changing his ecclesiastical 
relations, he was finally commissioned to the work in Japan by 
the American Board. He received his ordination from the Penn- 
sylvania Presbytery August 6, 1872. The Pennsylvania Synod 
stood pledged to contribute to his support, and did for six or 
seven years pay into the treasury of the American Board a sum 
averaging more than $700 per annum. He and his wife sailed to 
Japan September 1st, 1872, arriving at Yokohama the 24th of 
the same month. His going attracted the eyes of the whole 
church to that field, and marked the way for the missionaries 
who were sent by our board to the same country more than four 
years afterward. God has used him as an honored instrument in 
helping the work, not only of the board that sent him, but also 
of the church of which he is so worthy a minister. When our own 
missionaries arrived in Japan he was there in a successful mission. 
He was an old acquaintance and friend of the Hail brothers, and 
gave them all the counsel and assistance in his power. Did the 
limits of this volume permit it would be a pleasant task to take up 
Dr. Gordon's own labors and their results in detail, nor would such 

1 Minutes 1871, pp. 28, 29. 2 Ibid., p. 47. 



484 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

a history be unprofitable or uninteresting to Cumberland Presby- 
terians. After nearly five years spent in general missionary work 
in the city of Osaka, during which he suffered greatly from an 
affection of the eyes, he and family returned to America in the 
summer of 1877. They went out again the next year, sailing 
October 1st in the same vessel that bore A. D. Hail and family to 
Japan. Dr. Gordon has since labored most of the time in connec- 
tion with a training school at Kyoto. In December, 1885, he was 
compelled by failing health to return a second time to the United 
States. After spending more than a year in this country, most of 
the time in California, he again sailed for Japan August 23, 1887. 
Speaking in a late letter of his work in its relations to the Cum- 
berland Presbyterian church he says with characteristic modesty: 
' ' I sometimes think that while my going as I did may have been 
helpful in arousing the board and church to action, and so divinely 
ordered, yet when an independent mission was to be established 
that work was in the same divinely wise way given to other and 
better hands. ' ' 

The brothers A. D. Hail and J. B. Hail, whose mother is a 
daughter of Alexander Chapman of precious memory, were fellow- 
students of Gordon, at Waynesburg College. A. D. Hail was 
graduated from this institution in 1866, and his younger brother, 
J. B. Hail, three years later. Both resolved to consecrate them- 
selves as foreign missionaries. We do not know how much Gor- 
don's example did toward turning their thoughts in this direction. 
God often touches our hearts through the silent influence of our 
friends, or by their words or actions. An example of consecration 
and of faithful service can hardly fail to prove God's call beck- 
oning others to similar self-denial and faithfulness. Consciously 
or unconsciously every life is influenced and molded by other 
lives. When Gordon gave himself to the foreign work his fellow- 
students and fellow-candidates for the ministry could hardly fail to 
feel the influence of his example. 

These two brothers began to look about them for an opportu- 
nity to enter the work to which they felt that they were called. The 
prospects of being sent to any part of the foreign field by the Cum- 
berland Presbyterian Board of Missions were at that time very 



Chapter XLIII.J MISSIONS. 485 

discouraging. Therefore, J. B. Hail wrote to E. B. Treat, corres- 
ponding secretary of the American Board, asking an appointment 
to the foreign field as a Cumberland Presbyterian missionary. In 
his reply the secretary, after inquiring what he was to understand 
by an appointment as a " Cumberland Presbyterian missionary, ' ' 
discouraged the application on account of the limited financial 
resources then at the board's command. The younger Hail then 
offered himself to our own board. This was early in the year 1875. 
His brother made a like offer of himself to the Cumberland Presby- 
terian board in November of the same year. Both were accepted as 
candidates. 

In 1876 Pennsylvania Synod, of which J. B. Hail was a member, 
pledged $1,000 for his outfit and $300 a year on his salary, on con- 
dition that the board would at once send him to Japan. This offer 
was accepted, and he and his family sailed from San Francisco about 
the first of January, 1877, reaching Osaka the 30th of that month. 
There were then not more than fifty native Christians in that great 
city. But three Protestant churches were represented in mission 
work; the Congregationalists, through the American Board; and 
the Episcopalians, English and American. Our missionary and 
his wife devoted themselves at once to the study of the language 
and the people, ' ' sometimes exchanging instruction in English for 
instruction in Japanese." 1 They found a home in that part of the 
city allotted to foreigners, and known as the Foreign Concession. 

There was no money in our missionary treasury, and A. D. Hail, 
who had for some years been pastor at Cumberland, Ohio, had to 
wait. At the board's request he studied medicine, attending 
Cleveland Medical College in 1876 and 1877. A gentleman in 
Illinois, early in 1878 offered the board $1,000 for Mr. Hail's outfit. 
At the meeting of the General Assembly at Lebanon, Tennessee, 
in May of that year, he was solemnly ordained to this work, and he 
and his family sailed from San Francisco the following autumn 
reaching Japan October 21st. Up to this time but one inquirer, a 
man named Yamamoto San, had placed himself under the instruc- 
tion of our missionaries. When J. B. Hail acquired a sufficient 
knowledge of Japanese to begin to preach, efforts were made to find 

x See historical sketch of our Japan Mission in Minutes of the Assembly 1887, p. 77. 



486 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

a place in the city in which to hold services. But there was such a 
prejudice against Christianity that it was almost three months 
before a preaching place was found. At last a building on Ruhe- 
bashi street was rented and ' c the first sermon was preached on Sab- 
bath, February 9th, 1879, at 4 p.m., almost the exact time of the 
sixty-ninth anniversary of our denomination. ' ' 

There was much interest in the services from the first. In his 
report to the General Assembly of 1879, A. D. Hail, speaking of 
these first meetings, says: 

It is a matter of profound interest to witness the attention paid by 
some of the hearers, and to see others dropping into the passage-way as 
they are passing, and standing with great burdens of wares upon their 
backs, and greater burdens upon their hearts, turning their bronzed 
faces toward the speaker to catch his words. At such times one feels an 
inexpressible longing for a thorough knowledge of the tongue through 
which so many deaf hearts must be reached. 

The missionaries found that until they became accustomed to 
the climate they could not work so well as at home. Three years' 
study of the language was required in order to begin responsible 
work. They were hindered by the restrictions of the government, 
and by the circulation of infidel books from Europe and America, as 
well as by the difficulty of expressing spiritual ideas in the Japanese 
tongue, and the degrading effects wrought on the people by hea- 
thenism. But the Christian homes of the missionaries were already 
exerting an influence for good. Schools were springing up and 
the children were receiving instruction in anti-heathen knowledge. 
Persecutions had measurably ceased. The reading habits of the 
people and their eagerness to learn afforded constant opportunities 
to impart the gospel, while the number of native believers and 
Christian churches was rapidly multiplying. 

A Sunday-school, with an average attendance of fifteen, was 
organized by our missionaries November 2d, 1879, and a weekly 
prayer-meeting was regularly maintained, out of which grew a 
weekly meeting for inquirers. Two native helpers, Obato San and 
Suji San, were assisting in the work, teaching, exhorting, and aid- 
ing in pastoral visitation. 

Though there were in 1879 a small number of inquirers, one or 



Chapter^XLIIL] MISSIONS. 487 

two of whom the missionaries thought they might "justifiably en- 
courage to become candidates for baptism," yet it was thought 
1 ' better to err on the side of caution than of haste amongst those 
having such low ideas of the Christian life. " z It was not until 
September 26th, 1880, that the first converts of the mission were 
baptized. On that day two men, Yamamoto San and Kuzze San, 
received this ordinance at the hands of the Rev. J. B. Hail, and 
joined the missionaries in the first communion service of this 
infant church in the city of Osaka. Of these two men the Rev. G. 
G. Hudson says in his late report as corresponding secretary of the 
mission: 2 

These were the first fruits of our mission in Japan. Without special 
direction from their teachers these men consulted together, and agree- 
ing that as they were the first members of this new church, their con- 
duct would have great influence with those who should join later, they 
sought help from God to fit themselves for their responsible position, 
and promised on their part to have a stated time for secret prayer, and 
to give to the Lord one tenth of their income. Having such a founda- 
tion, we may hope that "all the building, fitly framed together, shall 
grow unto an holy temple in the Lord." 

Though the missionaries felt the importance of extending the 
work to points outside of Osaka, and tours of observation were 
made to Wakayama, Tanabe, and other important places, the want 
of men and women to aid in the work prevented them at that time 
from occupying these inviting fields. 

In the meantime the mission was bearing fruit in the church at 
home. Missionary contributions were greatly increased. The or- 
ganization of the Woman's Board of Foreign Missions grew directly 
out of the pressing necessities of this work in Japan. The mis- 
sionaries made their first official report in 1879. In it they said: 

As the work progresses we feel the indispensable need of female 
helpers. If one was on the ground now and had a thorough knowl- 
edge of the tongue she would prove an invaluable adjunct to the preach- 
ing place that is now opened. . . . While the labors of the wives of 
the missionaries are manifold, yet there is a large field that can be 
successfully worked only by young lady helpers. . . . The work ac- 
complished by the young ladies of other denominations has been very 

1 Report to Assembly, 18S0, Minutes, p. 80. 2 Ibid., 1887, p. 77. 



488 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

great. No denomination can wholly succeed without them. . . . The 
time has come in the providence of God when he is opening a great 
door of usefulness to our Christian women. 

In the same report it was suggested that ' * our board and Gen- 
eral Assembly call on the ladies of the church to organize them- 
selves for work," and it was urged that if possible at least one 
young lady should be sent to Japan the following autumn. But 
as this suggestion was not, that year, carried out, A. D. Hail and 
his wife, early in 1880, wrote a letter to the ladies of our church 
at Evansville, Indiana, through their pastor, the Rev. W. J. Darby, 
requesting, inasmuch as the General Assembly was to meet in that 
city in May of that year, that these ladies would call a convention 
of the women of the Cumberland Presbyterian church to meet 
there at the time of the Assembly's meeting for the purpose of or- 
ganizing a Woman's Board of Missions. The call was issued and 
the matter was pressed by the pastor at Evansville and the ladies 
of his church. The convention was held, and with the unanimous 
approval of the General Assembly the Woman's Board was organ- 
ized and located at Evansville. 

In 1 88 1 our missionaries began to make extended preaching 
tours in the country south of Osaka, and the work was thus en- 
larged. An extract from the report written March 15th, 1881, will 
show what were at that time the arduous duties of the missionaries: 

The work presses upon us so that every member of the mission 
must labor so constantly as to call for continual care against overwork. 
In addition to the regular day's work on the language, there are the 
usual labors of preaching, teaching, and superintending. During the 
present year prayer-meetings have been maintained Tuesday and Thurs- 
day evenings. . . . The average attendance has been larger than 
it was last year. . . . The wives of the missionaries have also begun 
a woman's prayer-meeting, which is held on Wednesday evening. 
. . . Every morning also, at the hour of family worship, which is 
arranged with that end in view, there is generally a half hour de- 
voted to exegesis which is shared by several of the Japanese. 
Every evening of the week also has been devoted to teaching- a few 
young men English and science, for the sake of gaining an influence 
over them, and reaching them with the gospel of Christ. One of the 
young men thus taught continues to open his house every Sabbath 
morning for Bible study. 



Chapter XLIII.] MISSIONS. 489 

The Sabbath services, preaching and Sunday-school, were kept 
up with growing interest at the regular preaching place; and an 
afternoon Sunday-school was opened in another part of the city, 
where a preaching service was held every Sabbath at 4 p. m. ; and 
Sabbath evening services were held in still another place. Mainly 
through native helpers the work had begun to extend outside the 
city. Services were kept up once a month at a mountain village 
twelve miles from Osaka; and the influence of the mission was 
gradually finding its way to other places. Three extensive tours 
into the Province of Kishu were this year made "with the pur- 
pose of ascertaining the feasibility of making it an out-station," 
but in all these efforts the mission was crippled by the lack of an 
adequate force of men and women, and the want of means to pros- 
ecute the work. 

The need of a religious, and especially of a denominational, lit- 
erature in the native language was at an early period recognized. 
When the entire New Testament was translated and printed, the 
work of imparting a knowledge of the gospel was made much less 
difficult. The Scriptures were sold everywhere, in shops, on the 
streets, at Christian meetings, and at heathen festivals. It was no 
unusual thing ' ' to see men with a copy of the gospels in one hand, 
and the image of a fox or of Buddha in the other, returning from 
their religious gatherings. ' ' In some cases those whose only teacher 
had been the printed word presented themselves for baptism. 

In 1881 a beeinninQf in the matter of denominational literature 
was made. The Confession of Faith was translated by J. B. Hail, 
who also translated the chapter of Dr. J. R. Brown's " Lights 
on the Way," entitled "The Doctrines." A. D. Hail translated 
the Shorter Catechism and the Catechism for Children. He also 
wrote an expository tract on Luke XV., entitled "The Sinner's 
Staff," and a Manual of Systematic Theology. The mission that 
year issued two hundred and sixty thousand pages of printed matter. 
Some other translations and original works have since been pub- 
lished, but efforts in this department have been much hindered by 
other pressing demands on the time and energies of the missionaries, 
as well as by the lack of an adequate fund to be used in the pub- 
lication of books. 



490 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

A religious book and tract store was opened early in 1881. 
While much religious reading matter was distributed gratuitously, 
the missionaries believed that more good would be accomplished by 
cheap sales than by the indiscriminate giving away of books and 
tracts. In the succeeding years book depositories have been estab- 
lished in many places, and colporteurs have been sent forth. This 
work is placed in the hands of native Christians, who combine its 
duties with evangelistic labors. 

November 21, 1881, Miss Alice M. Orr, of Missouri, and Miss 
Julia Iv. L,eavitt, of Indiana, the first two missionaries sent out by 
the Woman's Board, arrived at Osaka. Though they were able 
immediately to relieve their fellow-missionaries of part of their 
English teaching work, and as time went on to assist to some ex- 
tent in imparting instruction in music, sacred geography, and some 
other branches, yet their time for the first three years was mainly 
devoted to the study of the language. 

A preaching place was opened October 1, 1881, in a part of 
Osaka hitherto unoccupied by Christian teachers. The native 
Christians resolved to pay the current expenses of the services held 
here. They provided a box which, in memory of the widow's mite, 
they called ( ( the denarii box, ' ' and ' ( hung it every Sunday in the 
front part of the house, so that the people might place in it their 
weekly gifts." Since then all the preaching places and churches 
connected with this mission have been provided with denarii boxes. 

Under the direction of Mrs. A. D. Hail a "woman's meeting" 
was inaugurated to teach the Japanese women domestic handi- 
work by which they could earn money to assist in maintaining the 
preaching places. These meetings were well attended and grew in 
interest and good results. In 1882 the native membership in- 
creased more than two hundred per cent. Our half-dozen mission- 
aries felt themselves inadequate to provide for the multiplying 
demands of the work. They pleaded earnestly for re-inforcements. 
Work ' ( after the manner of circuit-riding on foot, ' ' had been pros- 
ecuted in the Province of Kishu, and ( ' a catechumenical class ' ' 
was in process of formation. 

All the converts baptized by our missionaries in any part of the 
empire were at first enrolled as members of the church at Osaka. 



Chapter XLIII.] MISSIONS. 491 

This church raised a salary and tried to secure a native pastor. 
Although there were several young men studying preparatory 
to taking a theological course no one among them was found 
''sufficiently acquainted with theology and the holy Scriptures to 
take the pastoral oversight of the flock. ' ' This church ' ' resolved 
to sustain its own preaching place" — that is, to pay its own rents 
and relieve the board of all incidental expenses connected with the 
services. This enabled the mission to rent a new preaching place 
in another part of the city. Thus at the close of the year, 1882, 
there were in Osaka three places where our missionaries main- 
tained preaching and Sunday-schools regularly every Sabbath, 
while private houses in different parts of the city were opened for 
prayer and other Christian work. 

Events of great importance to the cause of Christianity in 
Japan and to our struggling mission occurred during the year 1883. 
A missionary conference, in which all the Protestant missions of 
the empire were represented, was held April i6th-22d. Delegates 
from eighteen foreign societies, and representing a native church of 
five thousand communicants, were present. The report submitted 
to our General Assembly the next year says : 

The Conference came together in the spirit of prayer. All shades 
of Episcopacy, all the various Presbyterian and Methodist bodies, and 
different nationalities, came together in a oneness of spirit that pro- 
claimed the essential unity of the body of Christ. The influence of 
this meeting has been, and will continue to be, felt for good along dif- 
ferent lines of mission work in Japan. It will give a greater insight into 
the work to those Christians in America who have the cause of. mis- 
sions in this empire in their hearts and hands, and give ample instruc- 
tion to Mission Boards as to the kind of persons that should be sent to 
this field, and of the best and wisest method of dealing with them so 
as to secure their greatest efficiency as workers at a minimum of ex- 
pense. 

A still more important event was a general revival of religion 
throughout the Japanese empire. Describing this revival the cor- 
responding secretary of the mission in his annual report, says : 

The results of this revival have been such as to call forth the highest 
gratitude of all who have given to, and prayed and wrought for, the 
Christianization of Japan. Many of the churches have almost doubled 



492 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

their membership. The Christian life of the believers has been quick- 
ened, and has manifested this quickening in a greater consecration to 
Christian work, and a spirit of greater liberality. It has done much to 
eradicate from the hearts of native Christians the deep-seated prejudice 
against foreigners, which oftentimes made itself felt even against mis- 
sionaries. Thus has the way for a more cordial confidence in, and co- 
operation with, missionaries, upon the part of the native church, been 
opened by the Spirit of God. The native Christians of all denomina- 
tions hold a biennial Conference, composed of delegates representing 
the respective churches in the land. The object of this meeting is to 
consider questions which relate to the life of the church and to its suc- 
cessful progress. Meeting, as it did this year, in the wake of the Mis- 
sionary Conference, and in the inception of the revival which has been 
spreading throughout the country, the Conference was converted by the 
Holy Spirit into a daily and hourly meeting of incessant prayer. At 
the same time, without preconcerted action, all the churches in the vari- 
ous cities began daily prayer-meetings. The spontaneity of the move- 
ment was so manifest that none could question that the hand of God 
was directing it. It was but natural for these various streams of 
quickened religious life to flow together into one channel of Christian 
effort. The numerical results, so far as conversions are concerned, 
while they have been very great, are only one of the minor features of 
importance in this work. . . . Our own little church has shared with 
all others in the precious results. Its spiritual condition seems, therefore, 
to be much better than at any other time in its brief history. 

This year the Osaka church selected three men to serve six 
months as elders. Their re-election was made to depend on the 
ability and fidelity with which they performed their duties. The 
church being still without a pastor, these elders were called upon 
to discharge the duties of the pastoral office in turn, bi-monthly. 
The members of the congregation, numbering in all about forty- 
seven, were "scattered over a territory of about three hundred 
miles. In Osaka, a city of about 600,000 inhabitants, there were 
thirty-seven members; in Wakayama (out-station), 75,000 inhab- 
itants, one member; in Hikata, a cluster of villages of 5,000 inhab- 
itants, five members; in Tanabe, 11,000 inhabitants, one member; 
in Shingu, 8,000 inhabitants, three members." In the beginning 
of their work our missionaries made it their aim to cultivate in 
the native Christians a sense of responsibility and a feeling of self- 
dependence in relation to the financial affairs of the church, and 



Chapter XLIIL] MISSIONS. 493 

the regulation and management of other church interests. The 
following is a brief statement of the principles governing the mis- 
sion in its policy: 

The leading idea which the mission strives to realize is: The re- 
sponsibility of the native church for the conversion of Japan. This is 
the principle which is sought to be made prominent, and which has 
thus far determined the missionaries' plans of work. It has been their 
endeavor to follow this idea in defining the relation of the foreign 
church to the church in Japan: (I) It determines the attitude of the 
foreign missionaries to the native church to be that of co-laborers and 
advisers, "as being helpers of their joy and not as having dominion 
over their faith." While, therefore, they are here as members of a 
church that has a polity and system of doctrine of its own, yet they do 
not seek to impose these things upon the converts by any exercise of 
authority. They encourage any movements on their part toward any 
kind of union with their native brethren, which will aid them most ef- 
fectively in carrying out the responsibility which devolves upon them — 
that is, any union within essentially orthodox doctrine and liberal forms 
of church government. (II) The missionaries have tried to regulate 
the use of foreign money for native purposes upon the same principle. 
Believing that the practice of self-sacrifice and a sense of personal re- 
sponsibility are essential to the cultivation of a true missionary spirit, 
the use of foreign money has not been encouraged. When used, it has 
been as an exception only. The mission, therefore, has no schedule of 
salaries of native helpers, no definite rules as to aid granted to those 
desiring to be educated as evangelists or lay workers. In cases where 
aid is granted, other than directly evangelistic work is required as a 
compensation — that is, they must pay back to the mission monies ex- 
pended upon them by the mission. When it is necessary to hire 
preaching places in neighborhoods where no Christians live, the na- 
tive brethren are expected to aid in the financial maintainance of such 
stations. In localities where there are native Christians, they are en- 
couraged to rent a small preaching place •within their own means, 
sometimes aided by private contributions from the missionary, or else to 
open their own houses. (Ill) The same formative idea we expect to 
be governed by in any other phase of the work which may arise^ Our 
experience in the work, as thus conducted, encourages us to hope with 
reference to ultimate results. Our experience thus far may prove to be 
only the inexperience of a young mission, yet we shall continue to fol- 
low out this principle, subject to further light. 

This outline was written for the Osaka Conference in the latter 
part of the year 1882, by A. D. Hail, corresponding secretary of the 



494 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

mission. The test of experience in the years which have followed 
has demonstrated the soundness of the principle thus laid down, 
and the wisdom of the policy growing out of it. The native 
Christians have shown an increasing disposition to sustain their own 
churches, and to extend help to new places. Their missionary 
gifts in 1882 equaled thirty-seven cents for each member, and the 
year following more than fifty cents per member. In 1884 the 
total collections for all purposes reached an amount equal to six 
dollars for each member. When we remember that these people 
make their contributions out of their poverty, that one hundred 
and fifty dollars a year is counted a large income, that many earn 
almost nothing, and that the average pay of those who have regu- 
lar employment or business is not more than eight dollars per 
month, we see that they show a willingness to give, far in advance 
of that shown by the church at home. 

Nor has the policy of our mission, in allowing the Japanese 
Christians freedom in choosing their own methods of work and rules 
of government, been attended with any evil results. The regula- 
tions adopted have sometimes been more strict and wholesome than 
those enforced at home. For instance, we have this item in the 
report for the year 1882: "The native brethren have established a 
rule that persons not well known must wait at least two months 
after their application before receiving baptism. " "This," says 
the corresponding secretary, "has doubtless saved us from some 
mistakes. " x A report made three years later informs us that ' ' The 
[native] church takes very aggressive ground in regard to the use 
of wine and tobacco. While it has made no formal utterances up- 
on these subjects, yet the use of such things by non-Christians has 
such associations that persons coming into the church naturally 
feel that such habits should be renounced as being inconsistent 
with Christian character. We have not been very solicitous to 
correct such an impression." 2 

Mrs. A. M. Drennan, the third missionary sent by the Woman's 
Board, reached Japan May 4, 1883. Early in 1882 the missionaries 
had called on this board to take steps to lay the foundation of a 
girl's school and orphanage in Osaka. No Protestant orphanage 

Assembly's Minutes, 18S2, p. 66. 2 Minutes, 1S85, p. 81. 



Chapter XLIII.j MISSIONS. 495 

had at that time been established in that part of Japan. The 
Woman's Board was asked to send an educated lady, one with expe- 
rience in the care of a household, joined to ability to teach and a 
motherly tact and judgment in looking after the welfare of the 
young, to aid in this work. In response to this call, the board 
equipped and sent forth Mrs. Drennan, contributing also three thou- 
sand dollars to furnish buildings for the proposed school and or- 
phanage. A lot and buildings were secured in the Foreign Con- 
cession, and the school was opened with four pupils, January 8, 
1884. It has since been known as the Wilmina school. By June, 
1884, it had seventeen pupils. At the beginning of the year 1886, 
the attendance was forty-one, with an enrollment of fifty-nine. 
This school is divided into three grades, the primary, intermediate, 
and advanced. The studies, with but few exceptions, are the same 
as those pursued in similar schools at home. Japanese composition 
and history are taught, and the Bible is a daily text-book in all the 
grades. The first year six of the pupils joined the church, and 
others were awaiting baptism. There were sixty pupils at the be- 
ginning of the year 1887. - In December, 1886, there were three 
graduates who have since taken their places as teachers and help- 
ers in missionary work. With money furnished by the Woman's 
Board, a new building has recently been erected for this school. 

In addition to her regular work Mrs. Drennan has kept up daily 
and weekly classes for young men. Out of these has grown a 
Young Men's Christian Endeavor Society with forty-five members. 
Through Mrs. Drennan' s influence and under her direction a Jap- 
anese branch of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle has 
been organized, which in 1887 numbered fourteen hundred mem- 
bers. She also instructs a class composed of the wives of govern- 
ment officers "in English, the Bible, and household duties. " 

The year 1884 was one of great fruitfulness in other departments 
of the work. The attitude of the people and the government was 
undergoing a change favorable to the propagation of Christianity. 
Men of prominence were beginning to appreciate the benefits of the 
new faith. The people were ready and eager to hear the gospel. 
The impetus given the work by the revival of the preceding year 
was not checked, but steadily increasing in beneficial results. One 



496 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

of the emperor's privy council had petitioned the government to 
employ Christian teachers, and give instruction in Christian mor- 
als in all the schools from the Imperial University down. Another 
prominent man, ' ' as the result of his investigations abroad, memo- 
rialized the emperor in behalf of the introduction of Christianity." 
China and other Eastern countries were catching glimpses of the 
light shed abroad in Japan. Of Corea the report made at the close 
of this year says : 

The "Hermit Nation" (Corea), so recently opened for commerce 
to the Western Powers through the successful negotiations of Commo- 
dore Shufeldt, is looking upon the movements in Japan with profound 
interest. A few days ago that government sent one of its learned men 
(its historian) to this land in order to investigate its condition since the 
introduction of Western arts and sciences. This man, Rijutei, became 
a Christian, and is now employed by the American Bible Society in 
translating the gospel into his native language. The account of his 
conversion and work, as given by the agent of that society, is full of 
interest. While investigating the subject of Christianity, he dreamed 
that two men appeared who offered him books, and he was told that 
these were the most useful of all things for his people. When it was 
asked, "What books are they? " it was replied, "These are Bibles." So 
deeply impressed was the man by his dream, and also by the truths he 
heard, that he soon became a Christian, and from that time has been 
earnestly at work for the salvation of his people. His growth in grace 
and in knowledge of God's word has been marked and rapid. Through 
his labors several other Coreans have become Christians. Some of 
these are students in some of the Tokio Mission Schools, preparatory to 
work amongst their own people. A number of other prominent Co- 
reans, in this country for temporary residence, have applied to him to 
be taught the doctrines of Christ. Certainly in all this there is such a 
prophecy of what might be in regard to the evangelization of other 
Eastern nations by the help of a Christian Japan, as to stimulate the 
Church in Christian lands to devise more liberal things for the speedy 
conversion of her people. 

The preaching of our missionaries was this year attended with 
gracious results. In February the Osaka church perfected its 
organization. Two other churches, one at Kuroye (Hikata), a 
village near Wakayama, and the other at Shingu, " the extremest 
point of the province of Kishu," one hundred and ninety miles 
from Osaka, were regularly organized, the former May the 11th, 



Chapter XLIIL] MISSIONS. 497 

and the latter the month following. The report of the Corre- 
sponding Secretary of the mission in the Minutes of the General 
Assembly for 1887, gives an account of the origin of these and 
other Japanese churches, illustrating "God's power to use appar- 
ently trivial events to produce great results. ' ' 

The work at Hikata began with one man who, having heard 
something of Christianity, asked a missionary of the American 
Board for preaching. This missionary repeated the request to J. 
B. Hail. "As the interest deepened, the local priest became 
alarmed, and circulated a pledge against hearing Christianity 
taught, and against having even business relations with Christians. 
One man refused to sign the pledge, saying that Christians were the 
principal purchasers of their manufactures — lacquer work. On 
inquiry, a number of Bible readers were found in the village, and 
these formed the ' Society of Brotherly I^ove } for Bible study. 
The meetings were at first secret, though largely attended. ' ' Thus 
the church grew up. 

The history of the work at Shingu still more strikingly shows 
how the truth in the heart of one Christian proved the seed of a 
church : 

Some years ago a man living at Shingu sent his sister to a Girls' 
School of the American Board at Osaka. She became a Christian, and 
on returning home and observing the rules of a godly life was greatly 
persecuted by her relatives. To spend the Sabbath in a Christian-like 
manner, she was compelled to retire to the mountains, where she spent 
the day in reading and prayer. Some time after this Yamamoto San 
was preaching through that province, depending wholly upon Provi- 
dence for his support. He reached Shingu late at night without money 
or acquaintances, and weary with his march through mud and rain. 
He met a man who proved to be the brother of the girl referred to, and 
who inquired his name and business. When told that the traveler was 
a teacher of the religion of Jesus, he invited him to his own house, say- 
ing that he wished to learn of that way. From this grew the Shingu 
church. 

The church at Mitani Mura, a village nine miles from Waka- 
yama, was also temporarily organized in 1884. A young man from 
one of the families of the village went to America to seek his for- 
tune. "His father warned him expressly against the Christian 
3 2 



498 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

religion, and was enraged to find on his son's return that he had 
become a Christian. The son patiently endured his father's wrath 
until he could be heard in explanation of his course, when the father 
became interested and afterward a believer. The first baptism was 
administered in 1884." The church at that place in 1886 reported 
a membership of thirty-two. 

The history of the two churches organized in 1885, one in Wa- 
kayama and the other at Tanabe, is equally interesting. The 
events which led to the formation of the Wakayama church are 
thus briefly stated: 

A youth went from that city to America, and there became a Chris- 
tian. He wrote to his mother of the new-found faith, and so taught its 
principles and encouraged her that she also became a believer. He was 
anxious for her to have a teacher, and learning from an Osaka friend 
whom he met in San Francisco that a Mr. Hail taught in Wakayama, 
he wrote the missionary requesting him to visit the mother. When the 
request was complied with, it was found that she had been praying for 
a teacher. After a satisfactory examination the mother was baptized, 
and partook of the Lord's Supper with the missionary and his helper. 

The membership at this place is now fifty-nine, and the Sunday- 
school numbers one hundred and sixty-two. The church supports 
a day school of more than one hundred pupils. 

At Tanabe J. B. Hail began visiting in 1881. "After a year 
or two there were many reading the Scriptures, but all seemed 
waiting for some one to make the first profession of faith. On a 
certain occasion the missionary and his helper were especially bur- 
dened for visible results in their work, and without revealing to 
each other the unusual anxiety felt, they separated for secret 
prayer. Upon returning to the hotel they met a man who offered 
himself for baptism." The church thus begun reports a member- 
ship of forty-seven. 

We will get a better idea of the importance of these mission 
churches as centers of influence if we remember that Osaka is the 
1 ( chief commercial center of Japan ; Wakayama, forty miles from 
Osaka, the largest city of its entire province and of its contiguous 
southern provinces; while Tanabe and Shingu are respectively 
the sources of supply and trade for several valleys of populous vil- 



Chapter XLIIL] MISSIONS. 499 

lages. In the first-named city are five different Protestant bodies, 
besides the Roman and Greek Catholic churches. In Wakayama 
the American Episcopal and Cumberland Presbyterian missiona- 
ries, and Greek Catholic and Roman Catholic church are at work ; 
while in the rest of that and the adjoining state, our missionaries 
alone are engaged. ' ' x 

Two churches were built during the year 1884, one at Shingu 
and the other at Osaka. Work on the former was commenced 
when the number of baptized believers in the town was only four, 
and none of them well to do in the world. The report adds : c ' Yet 
God, who always honors faith in him, blessed them with hearts to 
expect great things from him and to undertake great things for 
him. The people of the village came generously to their aid, and 
a handsome little church was built and dedicated." 2 

The Osaka church was dedicated in October, 1884. The con- 
gregations at Tanabe and Wakayama have since built houses of 
worship. The other churches rent their preaching places. Up 
to 1887 none of these churches had pastors, because none of the 
native preachers had attained to the standard of qualification which 
was thought necessary. The elders and leading members assume 
the duties and responsibilities of pastoral work. 

In October, 1884, the several churches, three of which had up 
to that time been formally organized, appointed delegates to meet 
with the Osaka church to take steps for a better organization. 
1 ' They were in session about one week, and considered such topics 
as Form of Government, Confession of Faith, Missions, and Edu- 
cational Work. The missionaries were called on occasionally for 
advice, but sustained to them no other than an advisory relation." 
They organized themselves into a temporary body to meet semi- 
annually, arranging to have representatives from the elders and 
brethren of the several churches until they should be supplied 
with pastors and be able to form a presby tery. 3 These meetings 
are still held regularly, and the body made up of the assembled 
delegates is dignified with the title of presbyter}'. 4 

The apprenticeship of Miss Orr and Miss Leavitt in language 

1 Report in Assembly's Minutes, 1886, p. 89. 2 Minutes, 1885, p. 80. 
sAssembly's Minutes, 1885, p. 80. * Minutes, 1SS7, p. 79. 



500 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

study and other preparatory work had in 1884 proceeded far enough 
to enable them to enter regularly upon their missionary labors. 
Miss Orr at first devoted herself to work amongst the women in the 
out-stations in the province of Kishu, while Miss Leavitt engaged 
in similar work in Osaka. Both these young ladies have proven 
most efficient and consecrated workers. Miss Orr obtained a per- 
mit from the government to live for three years at Wakayama, 
with freedom to travel through the province at will. When Miss 
Bettie A. Duffield, of Missouri, the fourth missionary sent by the 
Woman's Board, reached Japan, April 24, 1885, the church at Wa- 
kayama secured permission for her, also, to live in that city three 
years. While studying the language she was associated with Miss 
Orr in a co-educational English day school, which was opened by 
the Wakayama church in November, 1885. This school, which is 
established on a thoroughly Christian basis, and which is "exclu- 
sively under the control and management of the native Christians," 
had, besides Miss Orr and Miss Duffield, three native teachers. 
The number of its pupils grew from forty in 1885, to one hundred 
and twenty at the close of 1886. During the latter year this school 
was ' ' so approved by the government officials that they proposed 
to give a new school building, pay the salary of two English teach- 
ers, and continue the management as a Christian school," if Miss 
Orr and Miss Duffield would devote three hours instead of an hour 
and a half daily to teaching in it. This proposition was referred 
to the mission. 

Miss Orr's work has not been confined to this school, or to Wa- 
kayama. She visits other places, conducting Bible meetings for 
women, holding prayer-meetings, and instructing inquirers. In 
1887 she reported "two growing classes, respectively twenty and 
ten miles from Wakayama, at Yuwasa and Iwada. ' > At Yuwasa, 
where the class numbered twenty men and women, it was expected 
that a church would soon be organized. x In a published letter she 
gives the following account of the origin of this work: 

One young man spent a month of successful work at Yuwasa. 
During his stay, a party of about twelve Christians from here went to 
the town and held a large meeting in a theater, with an audience of 

1 Minutes of Assembly, 1887, P- 86. 



Chapter XLIIL] MISSIONS. 501 

about five hundred most attentive and quiet people. Many school 
teachers and officials came to the hotel to ask us more minutely the 
way. Many desire to have Christianity. 

Speaking further of the missionary labors of these Wakayama 
converts, Miss Orr says: 

The young men took turns in going to a village, about two miles 
out, one night in every week, and have met with still more encourage- 
ment. Two of the women have gone often to still another village, some 
eight miles away, and two or three persons there have received bap- 
tism as the result, and a church is about to be organized. In conse- 
quence of this mission work, the Wakayama church is growing 
stronger in numbers and in spirit. 

Miss Leavitt's labors in the city of Osaka included "house to 
house visitation of women, conducting women's meetings, cate- 
chetical teaching in the ragged school, . . . explaining the gospel 
of Luke in the woman's theological class," and "giving lessons in 
foreign handiwork." In March, 1885, she began work among the 
women of the interior at Shingu and Tanabe and other places. In 
May, 1885, two schools, one for boys and one for girls, were opened 
by the church at Shingu. A. D. Hail and his wife spent the sum- 
mer there, and assisted the native church in this work. Miss 
Leavitt's work now permanently embraces the churches at Tanabe 
and Shingu. She spent much of the summer of 1886 at Shingu, 
where she filled "the varied positions of teacher, adviser, class 
director, and Christian friend." Of this summer's work she says: 
' ' It was the hottest, busiest, happiest time I ever spent in Japan. ' ' 
Of a class of five young men, all but one joined the church. 
These with eleven others made up the largest number ever bap- 
tized at one time in the Cumberland Presbyterian church in Japan. 

Besides the Wilmina school at Osaka, which is supported by 
the mission, and the English day schools supported by the churches 
at Wakayama and Shingu, a kindergarten is maintained by the 
church at Tanabe. There is also a ragged school at Osaka, in a 
district full of pauperism, and free night schools at Osaka and 
Wakayama. Classes and night schools are kept up also at other 
places. 

Several young men who have been won to Christianity by our 



502 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi, 

missionaries are studying in America. One of these is Miyoshi 
San, who has been in Cumberland University, Lebanon, Tennessee, 
since September, 1884. He graduated in the literary department 
of that institution, and expects to finish the theological course in 
1888, and afterward to devote himself to Christian work in his 
native land. 

In May, 1886, sixteen members of the Osaka congregation re- 
ceived permission from the ' * Presbytery ' ' to take steps looking to 
the formal organization of a second church in the city. Counting 
this second church, there are now seven congregations under the 
care of the Japan mission, viz. : Osaka, First and Second churches, 
Wakayama, Hikata, Mitani Mura, Tanabe, and Shingu. At the 
close of the year 1886 the total membership was 275, and there 
were 302 pupils in the Sunday-schools. During that year there 
were 157 baptisms. The growth of the church is indicated by the 
number in communion at the close of each year since the first two 
young men were baptized, September 26, 1880. In 1880 there 
were 3 members; in 1881, 8; in 1882, 27; in 1883, 47; in 1884, 124; 
in 1885, 208; in 1886, 275. 

In December, 1876, the Rev. George G. Hudson and wife, and 
Miss Rena Rezner, all of Illinois, arrived in Japan to join the mis- 
sion. Miss Rezner is the fifth missionary sent by the Woman's 
Board, and is associated with Mrs. Drennan in the Wilmina school. 
A. D. Hail, accompanied by his family, is now (September, 1887) 
in America on sick leave. 

Composing this mission there are eleven persons besides chil- 
dren. The whole list is as follows: J. B. Hail and wife, A. D. Hail 
and wife, Miss Alice M. Orr, Miss Julia A. Leavitt, Mrs. A. M. 
Drennan, Miss Bettie A. Dufheld, George G. Hudson and wife, and 
Miss Rena Rezner. All these, except Miss Orr and Miss Dufheld, 
reside at Osaka, on the Foreign Concession. The need of additional 
missionaries is very great. From the first and through all the 
years the force has been inadequate to meet the ever-increasing 
demands and opportunities of the work. 

It was a great gain to the church when it at last had its own 
successful missionaries in the foreign field under the direction of 
its own board. This was necessary to awaken the activity and call 



Chapter XLIII.] MISSIONS. 503 

out the strength of the church. Up to 1845, when our General 
Board of Missions was first organized, and for a number of years 
afterward, "Cumberland Presbyterians were accustomed to make 
their contributions abroad, except what was appropriated to Indian 
missions, through the American Board. The members of the Pres- 
byterian church did the same until the inauguration of their For- 
eign Mission Board in 1833." r From 1810 till the present time 
two young ladies and one married couple are the only Cumberland 
Presbyterians who have gone to a foreign field under the American 
Board. But these did not bring the work home to the hearts of 
our people. The Indian work under our own board called forth a 
hundred-fold more interest. The American Board and its mission- 
aries were to Cumberland Presbyterians telescopic, like the far- 
away splendors of the fixed stars. But now the case is different. 
When our own familiar acquaintances, our brothers and sisters and 
sons and daughters, go forth, and are supported by our own gifts, 
the heroism begins to enter our own homes. Our young men and 
women begin to ask, If these can go and be missionaries, why may 
not we also ? The stirring power of a heroic example right in our 
homes is far more precious than all our money. It is that which 
the church needs. If every large congregation had its own mis- 
sionary sent from its own Sunday-school to some foreign field, and 
not only sustained this missionary, but kept up constant corre- 
spondence with him, the results would far outweigh all the money 
ever given to missions. The children in such a Sunday-school 
would receive new impulses toward nobler things. Selfishness and 
worldliness would be rebuked. Pastors would find their hands 
strengthened in every effort they make against worldliness, and 
every appeal to nobler impulses would meet with increased success. 
Our own missionaries under our own board, in the very nature of 
the case, come nearer to our own people. Their work and their 
support become a part of the work of every congregation. 

Our women's missionary societies over the whole church are in 
correspondence with our own missionaries in Japan. A letter from 
some of these missionaries is read at almost every meeting of our 

I Address of the Rev. C. H. Bell, D.D., before the Missouri Cumberland Presby- 
terian Sunday-school Assembly, at Pertle Springs, August, 1887. 



504 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

numerous societies and children's bands. Thus the missionary 
spirit is everywhere kept alive. 

While Cumberland Presbyterians have found so great a gain 
growing out of their own independent missionary work, they are 
not opposed to the closest possible co-operation with other churches 
in the foreign field. On this subject the General Assembly of 1885 
unanimously adopted the following declaration: 

We believe union on the, foreign mission field is desirable, and will 
cheerfully enter into whatever measures may seem best looking to that 
end. Instead of transferring our differences to mission lands, we would 
join our sister denominations in the plan of establishing one Presbyte- 
rian church in each mission field. We regard it as very desirable, if not 
essential, to formulate a short and simple yet comprehensive creed in 
harmony with and containing the essential doctrines held by the 
churches composing the Alliance, the same to be used in ordaining 
native ministers, elders, and deacons. 

By the Assembly of 1887 this action was re-affirmed. Full 
confidence in our missionaries and in the native members of the 
churches organized and trained by them was expressed. "The 
conducting of negotiations for union with other Presbyterian 
churches in Japan ' ' was therefore intrusted to these missionaries 
and native Christians, with the stipulation ' c that in any basis of 
union that might be agreed upon they were to be careful to pre- 
serve untrammeled their privilege to hold and teach such views 
of the holy Scriptures as are peculiar to the Cumberland Presby- 
terian church." It was provided, also, that if such a union was 
entered into, the missionaries of our board were to continue under 
its direction in their work, and to receive support from its funds ; 
and that these missionaries, while holding their ecclesiastical rela- 
tions with' the union church in Japan, were to be " recognized, in 
all other respects as belonging to us, and when in this country and 
present at the General Assembly or other judicatures, to be entitled 
to seats as advisory members." On all parts of the field in all 
periods of its history the Cumberland Presbyterian church has 
given its utterances in an unequivocal tone in favor of the utmost 
practicable union of evangelical denominations. 

The-long-talked-of, long-delayed mission to Mexico was regu- 
larly opened in 1886. The Rev. A. H. Whatley, of Texas, who was 



Chapter XLIIL] MISSIONS. 505 

graduated from the Theological School of Cumberland Univer- 
sity, June, 1885, was appointed missionary. He was set apart for 
this work January 10, 1886, at Lebanon, Tennessee. He soon after 
proceeded to Mexico, where he spent fourteen months ' ' in prepar- 
atory work, the study of the language, the people, and the field. ' ' 
At first he lived at Chihuahua, the capital of the State of the same 
name. He was sent with instructions from the board ' ' to study 
well the situation, and take ample time for deciding both as to 
where and how the work should be begun. ' ' ' 'i^fter careful inves- 
tigation during several months, Aguas Calientes was selected as the 
place for establishing the first Cumberland Presbyterian church in 
Mexico. ' ' This is a city of thirty-five thousand inhabitants, situ- 
ated about two hundred and eighty-five miles north-west of the 
City of Mexico. It has seven Roman Catholic churches, but no 
Protestant church, and is "one of the neediest fields in Mexico.'' 
The missionary advised the board to purchase property for a church, 
and to establish a school. Illustrating the importance of beginning 
the work in this way, he said in a letter to the board: 

In this country the missionary has to meet the people principally in 
a public place. The customs of the country will not admit of his visit- 
ing from house to house, even among the poorer classes, until he is 
acquainted with them. One does not easily get acquainted with a peo- 
ple some of whom make the sign of the cross when he merely passes 
the window, that they may be delivered from the power of the devil, 
whose servant he is supposed to be. There are many people whose 
curiosity would lead them to church, whom nothing could induce to 
enter a place of worship in a private house. . . . These people are 
much more scrupulous about these things than we are. They have 
been accustomed to magnificent churches, and many of them look with 
contempt on the feeble beginnings of a Protestant mission. . . . The 
board is right, too, in its policy of establishing a school in connection 
with the mission. The importance of this branch of the work can 
hardly be overestimated. The Mexicans are very anxious to have their 
children study English. This interest in our language will furnish 
pupils for our school. 

The Board of Missions, in its report, May, 1887, says of this 
work: 

Our missionary to Mexico, the Rev. A. H. Whatley, has already 
acquired a sufficient knowledge of the Spanish language to enable him 



506 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

to speak and to preach to the people in their native tongue. He re- 
cently returned to the United States and took a wife, a devout Chris- 
tian, intelligent and resolute, who will henceforth share his labors and 
rewards. Property suitable for a chapel and a school will be bought at 
as early a date as practicable. A portion of the needed funds has been 
contributed by individuals. The Woman's Board, ever prompt and 
cordial in co-operating with your board in aggressive movements, has 
appropriated one thousand dollars for the purchase of property, and in 
due time will supply the proposed school with one or more lady mis- 
sionaries. The total cost of property and improvements will probably 
amount to three thousand dollars. 

At the meeting of the General Assembly of 1887, at Covington, 
Ohio, the Rev. F. P. Lawyer, of Illinois, a graduate of Lincoln 
University, and of McCormack Theological Seminary, Chicago, 
was formally consecrated to the foreign work in Mexico. It is 
expected that he will soon join Mr. Whatley and his wife in the 
mission at Aguas Calientes. 

In the last ten years new missionary life has been awakened in 
our Theological School. An annual course of lectures on missions 
before the students, by Dr. C. H. Bell, has done much to bring 
about this result. Our school has been well represented in the 
meetings of the Inter- Seminary Missionary Alliance. 

The Board of Missions has for several years been issuing a 
monthly paper, The Missionary Record. Its able editorials and its 
aggressive yet catholic spirit have made it an increasing power of 
good to the church and the cause of missions. 

The introduction of radical changes, however desirable those 
changes may be, is always a slow work. The one thing in which 
the Cumberland Presbyterian church was of necessity deficient at 
first was systematic giving. It had no pastors: could have none 
while our fathers were all out planting the church in the wilder- 
ness. It had self-forgetting heroism of the loftiest pattern, and 
these fathers accomplished the mission whereunto God had sent 
them. Now, the work of patiently training the organized con- 
gregations in the systematic consecration of their wealth to God 
is our most pressing duty. This duty rests on parents, pastors, and 
church courts. The home, the nursery, is the most important 
place for this training. Here is the beginning of missionary edu- 



Chapter XLIIL] MISSIONS. 507 

cation — to teach the little ones that deep love to Jesus which can 
not rest without doing something for his kingdom. How we do 
miss this high purpose when we put these little immortals on a 
course of church theatricals and other substitutes for God's plan 
of training! The cause of missions appeals to the highest motives 
which can influence the heart. God's plan is to develop in the 
church a supreme love to Christ, so that it will be more than our 
meat and drink to work, to give, to suffer, and, if need be, to die 
for his kingdom. 

To secure such training throughout the church will require 
many things, and require that these things be persisted in a long 
time. Co-operation among the church boards, the church courts, 
and the church papers — among pastors, and Sabbath-schools, and 
parents, in carrying out God's own appointed plan of systematic 
beneficence must be secured. Let presbyteries beware of nullify- 
ing the wholesome plans of the General Assembly. Let patient 
training go on. We are making progress, but years of labor will 
be required — perhaps generations must pass away — before we come 
up to the gospel standard. And while these generations pass 
away, let us not forget that generations of unsaved heathen are 
also passing out into eternity. 

The most powerful sun-glass will not set fire to tinder even 
unless you continue its concentrated light on the same spot. You 
must give it time. Time and persistence in concentrating the mis- 
sionary spirit upon the rising generation of Christians are needed. 
Training is never the fruit of spasms and changes. We want a 
sun-glass in our theological schools, Sunday-schools, and homes. 
We want the very sun himself in our pulpits, and by and by we shall 
have a blaze which will kindle and burn throughout the church. 

Let it be borne in mind that the church at home can not live 
without the influence which foreign missions exert upon it. With- 
out this the great swelling floods of worldliness would soon sweep 
the church away, or make its professions an empty sham. Infidel- 
ity is the home product of sham consecration. A whole neighbor- 
hood was once rapidly drifting into infidelity. The leading men 
in the churches were at heart infidels. Men not members of the 
church openly mocked at the hypocrisy of modern Christians. 



508 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi, 

While that was the general state of things, Christ had one loyal 
servant among the mothers of that neighborhood who trained her 
children to be what they professed. By and by three of this 
woman's daughters went as missionaries to the heathen. An im- 
mediate revolution began in that neighborhood. Infidels ceased 
to cry out "sham." Three of the leaders among them became 
Christians, and when they joined the church they stated that it 
was the going forth of those young ladies as missionaries which 
annihilated their skepticism. 

A Southern presbytery (Presbyterian) was full of dissensions. 
Its meetings were scenes of wrangling. In the midst of all this, 
one of the young men belonging to the presbytery returned from 
the theological seminary to ask for ordination as a missionary to 
the heathen. At his ordination every heart was melted and every 
feud was forever healed. 

J. B. Taylor tells us that after he saw Mr. Scudder embark for 
a distant mission, from that day onward his own preaching of the 
gospel rose to a higher plane. We must have all these elements 
of the gospel — love, and consecration, and self-denial — or else our 
home pulpits descend to the plane of mere human entertainments. 

The home church will never grasp the real divinity of Chris- 
tianity till it comes up to the divine pattern of entire consecration 
to Christ's kingdom. A patient study of the glorious promises 
which God makes to his people shows that they are all linked with 
this entire consecration. While God's sovereign grace may extend 
blessings to churches which are not thus consecrated to him, there 
are no assurances that such blessings will be bestowed, but many 
reasons are given why we should cherish no such expectation. On 
the other hand, it is absolutely certain that the divinity of Chris- 
tianity will be realized and known by those who are thus conse- 
crated, will be manifested to their children, and will convince even 
the gainsaying and the skeptical. We have had no missionary 
work since the days of the apostles. We have only been playing 
a little at missions. Let the church of this day give men and 
money as the apostolic churches gave, and thousands of conse- 
crated missionaries will immediately be added to the forces now in 
the foreign field. 



Chapter XLIV.] CUMBERLAND UNIVERSITY. 509 



CHAPTER XLIV 



CUMBERLAND UNIVERSITY— 1842 TO 1887. 

It is not necessary that this should be a school of three hundred boys. ... It 
is necessary that it should be a school of Christian gentlemen. — Dr. Thomas Arnold, 
of Rugby. 

WHAT was known as the removal of Cumberland College 
from Princeton, Kentucky, to Lebanon, Tennessee, in 
1842, Has already been discussed. Among those who composed 
the first board of trustees of this institution at Lebanon were 
some of the best men in the country — men fitted to lead in all 
noble public enterprises. Deservedly foremost among these was 
R. L. Caruthers, who was made president of the board. Who can 
estimate the value of one great-souled leader? In all noble plans 
for the advancement of the institution's interests, this man led the 
way. If he had been what the world now calls wealthy, the uni- 
versity would long ago have been fully endowed. His estate was 
large enough to enable him to place his name at the head of every 
subscription paper circulated to raise money for the institution. 
He led not only in liberal giving, but in planning liberal things. 
He scorned all littleness and meanness of policy in the manage- 
ment of the college business. 

Members of the Cumberland Presbyterian church were nearly 
always selected as trustees. When exceptions were made it was 
not from any lack of suitable men of our own, but for the purpose 
of extending the influence and increasing the usefulness of the in- 
stitution. James C. Jones, who was once Governor of the State, 
though not a Cumberland Presbyterian, was a friend to the church 
and made a good trustee. 

The members of the board at a regular meeting, in 1842, desig- 
nated their choice of men to compose the college faculty, as follows: 
F. R. Cossitt, D.D., President; the Rev. C. G. McPherson, Pro- 
fessor of Mathematics* the Rev. T. C. Anderson, Professor of L,atin 



510 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

and Greek ; and N. Lawrence Lindsley, Professor of Modern Lan- 
guages. At a later meeting the same year, T. N. Jarman was 
appointed tutor. All of these ultimately accepted their appoint- 
ments, but McPherson alone agreed to enter on his work at once. 
He, with the assistance of a student as tutor, opened the first 
term, September, 1842, in the building now known as Mrs. Jones' 
school-house. At the opening of the second term, February, 1843, 
Dr. Cossitt, and Tutor Jarman arrived and entered on their duties. 
The third term, beginning September, 1843, Dr. Anderson entered 
on his duties; and Dr. Lindsley began his labors in the department 
of modern languages September, 1844. This was then considered 
a pretty full faculty. 

Meantime it became plain enough to the church at large that in 
order to make the college at Lebanon a success, it would be neces- 
sary to abandon the * ( removal ' ' idea, and regard this school as a 
new and original enterprise. To this view of things none gave 
more cheerful acquiescence than the people of Lebanon. A new 
charter was obtained in 1844, in which the institution was called 
Cumberland University, instead of Cumberland College. The 
trustees had already resolved to secure a university organization, 
according to the American interpretation of that phrase — that is, 
they resolved to establish a group of professional schools around a 
college of arts as a center. 

When the fifth term of the college opened, the buildings erected 
specially for it were ready for occupation. This gave great relief, 
as the patronage had grown beyond the accommodations. 

At a meeting of the trustees, July 29, 1842, they defined the 
nature of their obligations for teachers' salaries, and declared that 
definition to be of perpetual application. This action has been 
repeatedly re-affirmed. In pledging a salary to any professor, they 
simply pledged to each his part, pro rata, of tuition fees and endow- 
ment interest, and any deficiency of salary remaining still unpaid 
was to constitute no debt against the institution, unless in some 
future session there should be a surplus from this fund after paying 
current expenses — a thing by no means likely ever to occur. In 
two cases, after rigid investigation made by disinterested experts, 
it has been decided that the institution did not owe any debts to 



Chapter XLIV.] CUMBERLAND UNIVERSITY. 511 

professors who had not received their full nominal salary, but had 
drawn their proportional part of tuition fees and endowment in- 
terest. Two faults, however, are undeniable: one, that this law 
about salaries was not always kept clearly before the professors; 
the other, that in case of a favorite professor, the trustees have 
sometimes departed from this regulation. 

The year 1845 was marked by several changes. Dr. Cossitt this 
year resigned, and Prof. Anderson was elected to the president's 
chair. Prof. McPherson retired from the chair of Mathematics, 
and was succeeded by A. P. Stewart; and James H. Sharp was 
appointed to the chair of Physical Sciences. This, too, was the 
first year in which the institution published a catalogue. The roll 
of students numbered ninety-six. Of these, twenty-five were can- 
didates for the ministry. 

From the very first the institution gave free tuition to all regular 
candidates for the ministry, without distinction of denominations, 
In addition to this liberality on the part of the faculty — for the 
school had as yet no endowment — about fifteen of the citizens of the 
town entered into an agreement that each would give one young 
preacher free boarding. Several of the number kept two each. 
But liberality of soul does not give infallibility of judgment. A 
few who proved unworthy were cared for and petted, while some 
of the church's noblest servants, as the after years proved them 
to be, who were sent here in their plain clothing and poverty, 
were rejected as unpromising by the good people to whom their 
presbyteries commended them, and went away deeply mortified and 
embarrassed to seek their education elsewhere. But the great 
majority of those who received this generous aid paid back the 
favor a hundred-fold in usefulness to the church. 

As soon as the institution was chartered, it began to struggle 
for endowment. After various efforts by others, the Rev. J. M. 
McMurray was appointed agent, and made a most thorough and 
protracted canvass. The plan which he was instructed to pursue 
was to take notes bearing interest. The interest was to be paid 
annually, and the principal to be retained by the donor during his 
life-time. By this plan, often modified to suit emergencies, McMur- 
ray enlarged the endowment to sixty thousand dollars. 



512 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

It was soon found, however, that the plan did not work well. 
It required trouble and expense to collect interest every year from 
men scattered over so vast a field. In the old note bag of the uni- 
versity treasurer there are to-day (1887) a large number of these old 
notes still unpaid. They keep well — so do Confederate bonds. 
One thing deserves to be commemorated — the persevering fidelity 
of McMurray in this work. With his family, in his own carriage, 
through mud, swamps, and snow, over mountains and rocks, and 
along all manner of rough roads, he plodded on his patient jour- 
neys throughout the church. 

During the year 1845 tne trustees determined to open a law de- 
partment in the institution. This determination was condemned 
by several leading men in the church. It was argued that a 
theological school should be established before trying to build up 
any other department; and that this effort to secure a law school 
would divert interest, distract our forces, and delay the one work 
which has always been nearest the hearts of our people — the estab- 
lishment of a theological school. Various private letters of expos- 
tulation were written to the leaders at Lebanon. This opposition, 
private and public, continued and increased till July 26, 1848, when 
the trustees met and agreed upon a paper to be published to the 
church, which should quiet all further apprehensions. x The sub- 
stance of this paper was a pledge, to be forever binding, that the law 
department should never be any tax on the church; that it should 
forever support itself, without asking the church for any assistance. 
The publication of this pledge in the church papers quieted the 
opposition. The organization of this department was delayed by 
the refusal of men chosen for that work to accept their appoint- 
ment. At last (1847) Judge Abram Caruthers was secured as law 
professor, his brother, Robert I,. Caruthers, becoming responsible 
for any deficiency which might arise in the salary. The law school 
was opened in R. L. Caruther's law office. There were thirteen 
students the first term, among them the present chancellor of the 
university. 

In 1848 the Hon. Nathan Green, Sr., then Judge of the Supreme 
Court of Tennessee, aiid Hon. Bromfield L,. Ridley, one of the 

1 Minutes of the Board, July 26, 1828. 



Chapter XLIV.] CUMBERLAND UNIVERSITY. 513 

State Chancellors, were secured to teach in the law school as much 
of their time as their other engagements permitted. In 1852 Judge 
Green resigned his position on the Supreme Bench, and devoted 
his' whole time to the law school. This school grew to great pros- 
perity, paying at one time over four thousand dollars per annum to 
each of its professors. 

The other departments of the university also grew and pros- 
pered. Prof. W. M. Mariner, was added to the college faculty in 
1847, and Prof. J. M. SafTord succeeded Prof. J. H. Sharp in the 
chair of Physical Sciences in 1848. Prof. W. J. Grannis was 
secured for the preparatory school in 1852. He still occupies this 
position. Many different persons served as tutors for short terms. 

One thing which has made its impression deep on the church 
and the country is the very high grade of scholarship possessed by 
the faculty of this institution. In no one thing is there greater 
verification of the saying that u like produces like," than in the 
similar grade of scholarship found in teachers and their pupils. In 
all churches, all countries, all ages, this truth holds good. The 
scholarship of the teacher is reproduced in the members of the 
classes taught by him. The records of the English universities 
kept from generation to generation show that in rigid and impartial 
examinations, conducted from year to year, the first honors have 
nearly always been won by students whose professors were first 
honor men, and very seldom by those taught by professors who 
had themselves won no honors. If there were some method by 
which the senior classes of all the colleges of this country could be 
annually brought to some such test, it would do much toward pro- 
moting thoroughness in our institutions of learning. 

As Cumberland University grew, its buildings were found to 
be insufficient. A magnificent extension to these buildings was 
designed, and T. C. Blake was in 1856 sent out to secure money 
for its erection. The plan on which the agent was instructed to 
operate was mainly the sale of scholarships. The building was to 
include dormitories, and the rent of the dormitories was to pay the 
interest on the scholarships. In addition to the new donations to 
be taken on this plan, the agent was authorized in some special 
cases to convert endowment notes secured by McMurray and others 
33 



514 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

into building scholarships. The needed amount was secured and the 
new buildings erected. A large part of this sum was contributed 
by citizens of Lebanon. The rent of the dormitories was for a while 
a pretty good equivalent for the subtractions from the endowment. 
The handsome buildings were an ornament to the town, and a great 
help to the institution. Placing all departments in one building, 
however, involved some serious disadvantages, and is not likely to 
be tried again by Cumberland University. 

President Anderson's administration was long and prosperous. 
A man of deep piety, whose heart was set far more on the kingdom 
of Christ than on any literary fame or earthly interest, he struggled 
nobly to train up a cultivated army of Christian soldiers. Broken 
down in health before he became connected with the institution, 
and continuing an invalid all the remainder of his life, he yet 
managed to do a noble service for his church in the long years he 
spent as president of this university. 

The long-delayed theological department was opened in 1853. 
The Rev. Richard Beard, D. D. , was its first professor. Dr. Cossitt 
had been elected, but declined. Dr. Beard, who gave his whole 
time to this work, was aided in it by the president of the univer- 
sity and the pastor of the Lebanon congregation. As this depart- 
ment had at first no endowment, Dr. Beard's salary was secured by 
private contributions from citizens of Lebanon. The Rev. W. D» 
Chadick, D.D., was then sent out to solicit endowment specially 
for this department. He secured notes amounting to nineteen 
thousand dollars. Then the Rev. W. E. Ward was commissioned 
as agent, and he secured nine thousand dollars in notes. 

The patronage of the Theological School was small. In 1858 
it had its first graduating class, four in number. With but one 
professor, and no available endowment, the outlook was certainly 
gloomy. Dr. Beard, however, toiled on, though often greatly dis- 
couraged. The entries in his private diary are often very sad. He 
began to doubt that his church really wanted a theological school. 
He grew very sensitive on the subject. Some statements in the 
church paper from one of the older preachers he regarded as an 
attack upon the whole system of theological schools, and he wrote 
a long series of articles in reply. Then another aged minister, 



Chapter XLIV.] CUMBERLAND UNIVERSITY. 515 

while on a visit at Lebanon, preached a sermon which Dr. Beard 
construed as another attack on theological schools, though the 
preacher afterward disclaimed any such intention. Dr. Beard 
spent a week in gloomy fastings and heart searchings. "Am I 
wrong ? Have I taken a wrong step ? Thou, Lord, knowest my 
whole heart. If this work is not from thee, Lord, shut the door 
on it forever." Thus he wrote in his diary. After that his spirit 
had rest. A sweet assurance of God's approbation filled his soul, 
and he went on with his half-paid labors all the remainder of his 
life. His professorship lasted twenty-seven years. 

The university grew and prospered. The largest number of 
students ever reported for one year was four hundred and eighty- 
one. That was in 1858. Nearly half of these were law students. 
In that year the Law School reached its greatest prosperity. 

Then came the war, closing out all departments and sending 
members of the same class to fight against each other in different 
armies. The war wiped out the endowment, burned down the 
buildings, destroyed the library, and filled all the friends of the 
university with despair. Stunned, bewildered, heartless, the sur- 
viving trustees, after the war, looked on the old columns which 
marked the site of the burnt buildings, with very little hope of 
ever seeing another college class taught in their town. About this 
time the Rev. W. K. Ward, D.D., visited Lebanon. He was an 
alumnus of all the departments of the university. Walking sadly 
about the old ruins, he took out his pencil and wrote on one of the 
then standing columns, "Resurgam." The word was taken up by 
others, and soon became the watchword for a new struggle. The 
Rev. T. C. Blake was sent out as an agent to raise money for the 
erection of new buildings. The whole country was a scene of 
confusion and desolation ; but in spite of the discouragements he 
secured in notes and cash over thirty thousand dollars. 

Dr, Beard and Dr. Anderson secured a hall and proclaimed 
their readiness to receive pupils in the College of Arts. The two 
Greens — father and son — in another hall opened the Law School. 
Very few matriculants were enrolled in either department the first 
session. 

Some of the trustees advocated the policy of abandoning all 



516 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

the old departments except the Law School. The board resolved 
to purchase the former residence of Abram Caruthers, deceased, 
for this school. For the buildings, sixty acres of land, and the 
work needed to fit up the buildings, they agreed to pay sixteen 
thousand dollars. Their only building fund was the unpaid notes 
which had been secured and handed over by Dr. Blake. The aim 
was to raise half the purchase money by subscriptions from Ten- 
nessee lawyers. This plan, however, was not successful, and dis- 
satisfaction about the purchase became general. 

The Law School never occupied these buildings, but the trus- 
tees turned them over to the College of Arts, hoping in this way 
to conciliate the people. But this measure had the opposite effect. 
It was interpreted as a deliberate abandonment of the plan for 
rebuilding on the old site. A large majority of those who had 
promised to contribute to the building fund refused to pay their 
notes, and most of these notes remain unpaid, and will doubtless 
so remain forever. Much prejudice and ill-feeling were thus en- 
gendered. 

This was the state of things when the writer of this history be- 
came president of this institution. 1 Dr. Anderson had resigned a 
year before, and the presidency had been offered to Gen. A. P. 
Stewart, and perhaps to others. Then the school had remained 
without a head for some time. The prospects were very dark. 
The condition of things when the new administration began beg- 
gars all description. There was deep-seated dissatisfaction about 
the buildings. There was no hope in the Board of Trustees. 
There were old debts contracted before the war, and pressing like 
hungry wolves. There was not an advertisement of the school in 
any paper. There was no endowment, there was no money be- 
longing to the institution. And worse than all else were those 
rentable scholarships by whose aid the burnt buildings had been 
erected. Many of these were sent to Lebanon to be rented to the 
students at less rates than tuition fees, and there was nothing to 
compensate the faculty for teaching the pupils who rented these 

1 Not being able to secure the history of my own administration from any other 
pen, I submitted my own account of it to the present chancellor, who was my col- 
league in toil and trials, and I have made all changes suggested by him. — B. W. M. 



Chapter XLIV.] CUMBERLAND UNIVERSITY. 517 

scholarships. These and many other equally trying things in- 
volved perplexities and struggles which only the Omniscient One 
and those who grappled directly with these difficulties can under- 
stand. No matter, "Restirgam" became a fulfilled prophecy. 

The plan for work in the institution was, at whatever cost, to 
secure a full and able faculty. Private subscriptions at Lebanon, 
supplemented by what was called ' ' the cash endowment, ' ' enabled 
us to accomplish this object. Many of the leading newspapers of 
the South declared ours to be the best faculty in all the Southern 
States. A distinguished jurist said, " Cumberland University has 
shot out of the channel ahead." Not only were our professors able 
and tried educators, but they had filled high positions of trust, 
which fact went far toward giving influence and power to the 
university. 

For a few years we were steadily overcoming the difficulties. 
The institution, for the first time in its history, was out of debt. 
Endowment, unencumbered and real, was slowly but regularly 
secured. For this work, reliance was placed on several things. 
The main one was to enlist the efforts of pastors. This method 
was extensively successful. Next to that was a series of well 
studied articles in the church papers. There were also vacation 
trips and visits and speeches to the church judicatures. The 
wealthy were called upon in order to secure donations. These 
methods, combined with u the cash endowment" for immediate 
use without investment, made up the programme by which the 
work was sustained. 

The Finley Bequest, secured in 1869, now furnishes the best part 
of the living of the theological professors. A will, made through 
the influence of one of our pastors at that time, has been changed 
since into a ten thousand dollar cash contribution. Several small 
tracts of land were about this time deeded to the university, and 
turned by it into money to meet some of its pressing wants. Ex- 
tensive mining lands, which were thought then to be valuable, 
though nothing has ever been realized from them, were secured; 
also a tract of land lying between Kansas City and Independence, 
Missouri, which promises to be very valuable. A dear friend of 
the university holds a life- time reservation claim on the tract last 



518 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

mentioned, so that it is not now available. This land was donated 
to the university in 1870. It was then supposed to be of sufficient 
value to endow a professorship. Its value has since increased 
greatly, and is perhaps the largest donation ever made to the insti- 
tution. 

The largest gift of books which the university ever received 
was made in 1869. This is the library of the Rev. James Mur- 
dock, of the theological department of Yale College. It is specially 
rich in patristic and historic literature. This library was donated 
by the Hon. Abraham Murdock, of Columbus, Mississippi. He is 
a son of the old Professor, and was at the time the donation was 
made under the pastoral care of that active friend of the university, 
Dr. G. T. Stainback. 

When the war closed the citizens of Lebanon were no longer 
able to give free boarding to candidates for the ministry. Dr. T. 
C. Blake suggested the establishment of "a camp" for them, sim- 
ilar to the quarters or barracks occupied by soldiers. Provisions 
were to be solicited from the surrounding churches. As many of 
the probationers had been soldiers in the war, this plan was the 
more readily adopted. An old boarding-house, with several small 
buildings surrounding it, was purchased and named Camp Blake. 
The money to pay for this property was secured, and an ample 
supply of provisions was also obtained. Nathan Green, the present 
chancellor, became superintendent of this novel encampment, and 
filled this position without any pay as long as this method of pro- 
viding homes for our young men was continued. His services in 
that sphere were very valuable, for he not only managed the finances 
so as to keep the camp clear of debt, but also exercised the kindest 
fatherly oversight over the young preachers. Some of those who 
gathered there were very unpromising in appearance at first, but 
they improved afterward to a degree that placed them in the front 
ranks of the ministry of our church. 

To many an old student the following paragraphs, clipped from 
one of Judge Green's published articles, will call up pleasant rem- 
iniscences: 

Yielding to the suggestion of many older and wiser men, I have 
engaged the services of one of the most refined and elegant ladies of our 



Chapter XLIV.] CUMBERLAND UNIVERSITY. 519 

church to supervise the cooking and grace the table at Camp Blake. 
The lady has her mother with her, who contributes much to the com- 
fort of the cadets. It was thought indispensible that a lady should be 
among these young preachers to soften and refine their manners, as well 
as to protect them against the carelessness of servants. . . . 

Already, though the next session will not begin for ten days, have 
the young preachers who intend to enter college next year begun to 
arrive. I am afraid to say how many will be here next session, for the 
old ones all remain. I am confident there will be fifty or more. What 
shall we do with them ? They must all eat at once at the table, and they 
must all eat at the same table. The dining-room now used is too small 
for fifty men. We must have another, and take this for a dormitory. It 
has been determined, therefore, by the best advice, to erecta tabernacle. 

From fifty to seventy young preachers were provided for every 
term. Some of these are now among- the most successful pastors 
in the denomination. More young preachers went to college under 
this arrangement than any other our church ever had. When 
better times enabled the trustees to make better arrangements, the 
Camp Blake property, which was clear of debt, was rented out in 
the interest of the theological department, and is still so used. 

One of the great difficulties the college encountered just after 
the war, was the utter lack of any regular preparatory schools in 
the South. In view of this, the trustees established detached pre- 
paratory schools in several Southern towns and cities. The number 
of pupils in these at one time reached seven hundred. Tb'2 mis- 
sion which these schools were designed to fill was temporary, and 
when their work was done they were abandoned. 

Meantime the troubles about the purchase of the Caruthers 
buildings greatly increased. Only a small number of the building 
notes could be collected. About half the purchase money had 
been paid, and the remaining debt was pressing. Finally the prop- 
erty was condemned by the courts and its sale ordered. The theo- 
logical school bought it, paying for it just half what it had cost 
the trustees. 

This was one of the wisest steps the theological school ever 
took. This school had unimproved property in Chicago, which 
had been for years eating itself up with taxes and agent's fees. The 
trustees sold this Chicago property for twelve thousand dollars cash. 



520 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

The theological school invested four thousand dollars of this money 
as endowment, and paid eight thousand for the Caruthers property, 
now called Divinity Hall. Thus buildings and land, which were 
valued at twice the money invested, were obtained, and the uni- 
versity was saved a sacrifice which would have placed both the 
theological school and the college of arts out of doors, with scarcely 
a hope of ever securing a shelter over their heads. Indeed this 
purchase saved the life both of the theological school and the col- 
lege of arts. And yet a committee which knew nothing of the 
facts wanted the next General Assembly to censure the trustees for 
making it. 

The darkest, saddest part of this struggle to build up the uni- 
versity was the bitter but unsuccessful conflict with the life insur- 
ance companies. Schemes for securing endowment by persuading 
men to take out insurance policies in favor of the university were 
pressed by five different companies. When these efforts were 
thwarted at Lebanon, the agents of the companies would visit 
churches and attend the meetings of Presbyteries and Synods to 
secure their influence in urging these plans upon the trustees. 
Some of our ablest ministers were induced thus to take an active 
part in pressing these schemes. 

As the president had several times succeeded in defeating the 
efforts of these agents, they began to watch for opportunities to 
press their plans on the board in his absence. In 187 1, while he 
was absent in Alabama, an agent of the St. Louis Mutual Life 
Insurance Company, who was also an elder in one of our strong 
churches, and a true friend of the university, prevailed on the 
trustees to adopt his scheme. Though this scheme was well meant, 
and looked plausible, and was indorsed by many friends of the 
institution, yet its adoption was a death blow to all the plans that 
had been formed by the president and those co-operating with him. 
The trustees claimed for the agents of the insurance companies a 
clear field, not permitting any other method of raising money for 
permanent endowment, or allowing the collection of cash contribu- 
tions to supplement salaries. It being known that the author of 
this history, as president, had no confidence in the scheme, he was 
enjoined to keep silence. This he did except when conscience re- 



Chapter XLIV.] CUMBERLAND UNIVERSITY. 52 1 

quired him to speak. He did nothing to thwart the agents; but 
when the friends of other colleges wrote, making inquiries about 
the ' ' grand scheme, ' ' they were warned to have nothing to do with 
it. The University of Virginia and other institutions were perhaps 
saved from burnt fingers by these warnings. 

The insurance scheme amounted to a disaster. The insolvency 
of the company after the church had invested many thousands with 
it, and before the university 7 had received any real benefit, came, 
sweeping away confidence and hope together. Under the anxiety 
growing out of this insurance business, and the suspense and final 
disaster it brought, the health of the president gave way, leaving 
him in a long struggle between life and death. He resigned in 
September, 1873, and the Hon. Nathan Green was placed at the 
head of the institution as chancellor. 

Dr. Green receives pay as Law Professor, but his work as chan- 
cellor is done without salary. We can often judge of a man's clear- 
sightedness by looking backward. Dr. Green opposed the purchase 
of the Caruthers buildings for the law school. He opposed the 
schemes of endowment by life insurance. He opposed all the 
schemes for cheap scholarships, and all other clap-trap methods for 
securing endowment funds. The results now indicate the correct- 
ness of his judgment in all these matters. 

The most important work of Dr. Green's administration has been 
that done for the theological school. When he was made chan- 
cellor that school had but one professor. It now has a faculty 
of three professors, and an indefatigable agent is making good 
progress toward its endowment. Two handsome buildings, large 
enough for two of the departments of the university, have also been 
secured since Dr. Green became chancellor. 

The institution now has one building for each of its four depart- 
ments. Its endowment is largely prospective — notes and lands 
being the main items. 

A change of deep significance has taken place in regard to the 
endowment of the theological school. The General Assembly has 
awakened at last to the fact that this school belongs not to Cumber- 
land University, but to the whole church. Not the trustees of the 
university, but the General Assembly planned and inaugurated this 



522 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

department. Cumberland University did not even ask the General 
Assembly to establish such a department. True, the friends of the 
university from all parts of the church are very earnest in their 
convictions that Lebanon is the proper place for such a school, and 
they urged those views on the General Assembly before the school 
was located. 

At Bentonville, Arkansas, 1885, the General Assembly instructed 
its own Board of Education, located at Nashville, Tennessee, to 
appoint an agent to secure endowment for the theological school. 
So long as the trustees of Cumberland University appointed the 
agents to endow this department, that fact placed this school in a 
false light. It is not and never was a mere department of the uni- 
versity. It stands in relations to the university far different from 
those sustained by the law department. The latter was created by 
the trustees at Lebanon, and could be abandoned by them without 
asking the church or the General Assembly. 

The church's theological school is a department of the university 
only so far as such relation is supposed to be serviceable to this 
school, but it is something more than a mere department. It has 
relations independent of the university. The propriety of having 
a separate board of trust for it has often been discussed, but its own 
interests are against such a separation. 

The charter for this department differs greatly in its provisions 
from the charters of the other departments. One item included in 
the rules laid down by the Assembly when this school was estab- 
lished, and which was rigidly enforced for a few years, has unfor- 
tunately been allowed to pass into forgetfulness. It provides that 
a committee shall be appointed annually by the General Assembly 
to visit the institution and report concerning its prosperity and 
orthodoxy. At a time when so many theological schools are drift- 
ing away into heresies and something worse, our church should by 
no means relax its use of this fortunate provision. We have no 
right to assume that we are forever free from jeopardy, when some 
of our neighbors are even now in such trouble. 

The fundamental laws of the institution, to which its charter 
was required to conform, were laid down by the General Assembly 
when the school was established. (See Assembly Minutes, 1852). 



Chapter XLIV.] CUMBERLAND UNIVERSITY. 523 

The last section of Article V. and three sections from Article VI. 
are here given: 

ARTICLE V. 

Sec. 7. — Each professor, before entering upon the duties of his 
office, shall solemnly adopt, in such form as the Assembly may pre- 
scribe, the Cumberland Presbyterian Confession of Faith and Form 

of Government. 

ARTICLE VI. 

Sec 1. — That the theology taught in the school may be subject to 
the judgment of the Assembly, it shall be the duty of the Professor of 
Systematic Theology to write out his lectures to the classes, and when 
required, he shall submit them to the examination of the board, or to a 
committee of the Assembly. 

Sec 2. — Professors, as other ministers, will be amenable to the 
presbytery, and subject to be arraigned for immorality or heresy. But 
for their official character they shall be amenable to the Assembly, and 
upon a recommendation of the board or a committee of the Assembly, 
they shall be subject to removal for incompetency, gross neglect of offi- 
cial duty, or such irregularity in deportment or error in doctrine as shall 
render their continuance in office detrimental to the interests of the school. 

Sec 3. — As professors may be removed whenever the Assembly 
shall deem it expedient, appointments shall be made for an indefinite 
time, except in cases where the board may recommend an appointment 
for a definite period. 

One of the strange questions of the times relates to the theo- 
logical education of young ladies who are to go out as foreign 
missionaries. That there should be embarrassment and hesitation 
about receiving them into the classes of our theological seminary 
seems to some people very strange. To some of the staid old con- 
servatives of Cumberland University, who have always objected to 
co-education, it is a matter of astonishment that such an innova- 
tion should be demanded. Now the question is to come before the 
General Assembly, and we shall see whether or not the world is 
moving. In this matter the Assembly has entire control. 

The tables of statistics relating to the university, published in 
The Theological Medium, October, 1876, abound in mistakes. 
The dates, and the figures indicating the patronage, are unreliable. 
Omitting the temporary and detached schools, the following is a 
list of all those who have been members of the faculty of Cumber- 
land University: 



524 



Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 



NAMES. 



Rev. F. R. Cossitt, D.D 

Rev. T. C. Anderson, D.I). 
Rev. B. W. McDounold, B.D., 

LL.D 

Hon. N. Green, LL.D 

Rev. C. G. McPherson 

Rev. T. C. Anderson 

Mr. . Price 

T. N. Jarman 

B. S. Foster 

N. Lawrence Lindsley, LL.D 

Gen. A. P. Stewart 

Gen. A. P. Stewart 

Gen. A. P. Stewart 

Louis A. Lowry, A.B 

J. H. Sharp, M.D 

Hon. Ab. Caruthers 

R. P. Decherd 

R. P. Decherd 

R. P. Decherd 

Rev. Robert Donnell 

Rev. Wiley M. Reed , 

Robert Hatton , 

Rev. N.J. Fox 

Wm. Mariner, A.M 

J. M. Safford, Ph.D 

J. L. McDowell 

Wm. Mariner, A.M , 

Wni. Mariner, A.M 

Rev. J. C. Provine 

Rev. T. C. Blake 

Rev. T. C. Blake 

Rev. S. T. Anderson 

Rev. W. W. Snddarth 

Rev. E. B. Crisman 

Rev. A. H. Alsup 

Rev. R. Beard, D.D 

Hubert H. Merrill 

W.J. Craw 

A. H. Buchanan 

A. H. Buchanan 

H. A. D. Brown 

J.Blau 

E. G. Burney 

Ben Decherd 

T. C. Anderson, 1).D 

W. D. McLaughlin 

W. D. McLaughlin 

D. S. Bodenhamer 

H. T. Norman 

John I. D. Hinds 

W. J. Grannis 

W. J. Grannis 

Samuel Y. Finley 

H. S. Kennedy 

N. J. Finney 

Rev. T. M. Thurman 

Oliver Holben 

N. Green, Jr 

T. H. Hardwick 

H. H. Merrill 

B. C. Jilson 

E. H. Plumacher , 

W.H. Darnall 

H. W. Grannis 

Abram Caruthers , 

Nathan Green 

B. L. Ridley 

N. Green, Jr , 

John C. Carter 

Henry Cooper 

Robert L. Caruthers 

Andrew B. Martin 

S. G. Burney, D.D 

R. V. Foster, A. M 

John I. D. Hinds , 

J. D. Kirkpatrick, D.D 

E. E. Weir 



PROFESSORSHIP. 



President. 
President. 



President 

Chancellor 

Mathematics 

Languages 

Tutor for one session 

Permanent Tutor 

Tutor 

Lin. Vetr 

Mathematics 

Mathematics 

Mathematics 

Mathematics (temporary) 

Chemistry 

Int. and Const. Law and Political Economy. 

Second Tu tor 

Tutor 

Sup't. Prep. Dep't 

Lecturer on Theology 

Junior Tutor 

Tutor 

Tutor 

Ass'tProf. Lin. Vetr 

Chem., Min., and Geo 

Tutor 

Mathematics 

Lin. Vetr 

Assistant Tutor 

Tutor 

Mathematics 

Tutor 

Tutor for five months...* , 

Tutor for one session 

Tutor 

Systematic Theology , 

Teacher Prep. Dep't 

In Dr. Salibrd's absence 

Eng. and Engineering Dep't 

Mathematics 

Teacher Prep. Dep't , 

Modern Languages 

Prin. Prep. Dep't , 

Assistant Teacher Prep. Dep't , 

Lecturer in Theology 

Adjunct Prof. Classics and Belles-Lettres.. 

Prof. Lin. Yetr 

Teacher Prep. Dep't 

Teacher Prep. Dep't 

Adj. Prof. Phys. Sci 

Prep. Dep't 

Prin. Prep. Dep't 

Teacher Prep. Dep't 

Prin. Eng. School 

Teacher Prep. Dep't 

Tutor 

Modern Languages 

Tutor 

Tutor 

Teacher , 

Geology 

Modern Languages 

Murdock Prof. Eccles. Hist 

Teacher Prep. Dep't 

Law Professor 



Prof. Bib. Lit 

Prof. Belles-Lettres and Hebrew. 

Prof. Chem. and Nat. Science 

Eccles. Hist 

Eng. Literature 



July 
Sept. 



Aug. 

July 

Aug. 

Aug. 

Sept. 

April 

Sept. 

Jan. 

April 

June 

Feb. 

Feb. 

May 

Jan. 

Feb. 

Feb. 

July 

Feb. 

June 

June 

Dec. 

June 

Sept. 

Oct. 

July 

Feb. 

Sept. 

■Vug. 
Jan. 
June 
Oct, 
April 
April 
May 
June 

Vug. 
Sept. 
Aug. 
July 
Nov. 
Aug. 
June 
July 
Aug. 
June 
Oct. 
Aug. 



Aug. 



Sept. 



9, 1842, 
30, 1844, 

-. 1866, 

30, 1873. 

9, 1842, 
3, 1842, 
3, 1842, 
9, 1842, 

29, 1844, 

21, 1844, 

22, 1845, 
3, 1850, 

28, 18 r 6, 
27, 1845, 
27, 1845, 

17, 1845, 
3, 1«46, 
22, 1849, 
16, 1850, 

10, 1846, 
20, 1847, 
26, 1847, 

26, 1847, 

31, 1847, 

27, 1848, 

11, 1848, 

1 , 1849, 

12, 1S50, 

16, 1850, 

20, 1850, 

2, 1854, 

18, 1851, 
27, 1851, 

10, 1851, 

2, 1852, 
22, 1853, 

24, 185), 

3, 1854. 
2, 1854, 
2, 1869. 

21, 1856, 

11, 1866, 

17, 1866, 
24, 1869, 

30, 1870, 

22, 1870, 

17, 1872. 
6, 1871. 

18, 1871, 
30, 1873, 
-, 1852, 

30, 1873. 
■,1859, 
-, I860, 
•, 1866, 
-, 1866, 
•, 1867, 
-, 1.-44, 
,1851, 
•, 1858, 
-, 1854, 
-, 1870, 
•, 1873, 
■, 1875, 
■i 1847, 
-, 1848, 
■, 1848, 
-, 1856, 
, 1859, 
, 1866, 
■, 1868, 
■, 1S78. 
-, 1877. 
•, 1877. 
■, 1874. 
•, 1880. 
1880. 



Sept. 30, 1844. 
Aug. 24, 1S66. 



18- 



Sept. 
Sept. 



Oct. 
Oct. 
Aug. 
Sept. 



Sept. 
May 
Feb. 
Feb. 
Aug. 



21, 1844. 
21, 1844. 
-, 1842. 

-, 1844. 
-, 1846. 
13, 1849. 

1, 1849. 

2, 1854. 
2, 1S69. 

-, 1845. 
4, 1847. 

1, 1S17. 
20, 1S47. 
16, 1850. 

2, 1854. 
-, 1848. 
• , 1848. 
-, 1848. 
-, 1848. 

1, 1S49. 
-, 1873. 
-, 1848. 

12, 1850. 
-, 1860. 
-, 1850. 

24, 1851. 

28, 1856. 
-, 1851. 
-, 1851. 
-, 1852. 
-, 1852. 
-, 1881. 

3, 1856. 

-, 1860. 

-, 1858. 

-, 1867. 
July 22, 1870. 

, 1871. 

, 1872. 

Aug. 17. 1S72. 



Oct. 



July 



Tune 
June 



July 



-,'872. 
-, 1872. 
-, 1874. 
-, 1862. 

-, 1S60. 
-, 1871. 
-, 1867. 
-, 1867. 
-, 1S70. 
-, 1845. 
-, 1S52. 
-, 1859. 
-, 1856. 
-, 1871. 
-, 1878. 

-, 1862. 
-, 1866. 
-, 1852. 

-, 1864. 

-, 1868. 
-, 1S82. 



Chapter XLIV.] CUMBERLAND UNIVERSITY. 525 

From the first the law school has combined all the best methods 
of instruction with the services of the very ablest professors. The 
instruction does not consist of mere lectures by those who have 
turned aside for an hour from busy practice at the bar, but able 
lawyers give their whole time to the classes, teaching by recita- 
tions, lectures, and moot courts. ' 

The first want of a student in his preparation for any profession 
is that mental discipline and development which a college of arts 
furnishes. To place a student in his professional studies before he 
learns how to think, is the road to professional failure. Cumber- 
land University could furnish from its own long rolls, many an 
illustration of this fundamental truth. The department of arts 
demands larger facilities, and must have them if we would realize 
the best results. 

Wiley A. Hatley, of Arkansas, in a tribute to the memory of 
his father, John Hatley, after describing many noble services which 
his father rendered to the church, closes the biographical sketch 
with these words: "No other part of the legacy he left to his chil- 
dren has been so precious in its influence on them as the money he 
contributed for the founding of Cumberland University, and for the 
support of other enterprises of the church. The large sums which 
he so freely gave to the church, and for the cause of Christian 
education, brought a greater blessing to those he left behind than 
the estate which they directly inherited. ' ' 

Whenever the church resolves to have an endowed college, we 
shall have it. Not paper resolutions, but heart and pocket resolu- 
tions are meant. Small contributions from our entire membership 
can be secured, if the ministry will do their duty. This general 
action is the first great lever to prize up big donations. It was to 
Union College, long fostered by the gifts of a multitude of poor 
people, that Dr. Nott gave six hundred thousand dollars. "He 
that hath to him shall be given, ' ' is the law in college endowment. 
General action, even from the poor will make our colleges a suc- 
cess. The tax of one peck of corn on the poor colonists of Massa- 
chusetts saved Harvard College, and attracted large gifts even from 
England. 

Let not our people foster the mistaken notion that we are 



526 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

too poor to endow our colleges. Count over how much was lost 
by members of our church in your county by the war. They bore 
that loss and yet live. But they pleaded poverty before the war 
just as much as they do now. Suppose half as much as has been 
lost had been given to the church, could the donors not have sup- 
ported their families and lived happily ? L,ook around you and see 
what the members of the church are paying for railroads. Yes, 
and still the donors live. 

Our men of large wealth have given us no examples of liber- 
ality proportionate to their ability. There is a wide field open for 
usefulness, for happiness, for honorable distinction — open to any 
wealthy man among us who will break the long spell of parsimony, 
and lead our rich men in deeds of munificence. Alumni of Cum- 
berland Presbyterian colleges, the cause of learning in our church 
cries out to you for help. 



Chapter XLV.] WAYNKSBURG COLLEGE. ] $2*] 



CHAPTER XLV. 



WAYNESBURG COLLEGE, LINCOLN UNIVERSITY, 

AND TRINITY UNIVERSITY. 

Delve we there for richer gems 
Than the stars of diadems. 

— James Montgojnery. 

BESIDES the university at Lebanon, Tennessee, whose work 
is described in the last chapter, Cumberland Presbyterians 
have three other principal educational centers. These are Waynes- 
burg College, at Waynesburg, Pennsylvania, in the eastern part of 
the territory occupied by our people; Lincoln University, in the 
North-west, at Iyincoln, Illinois; and Trinity University, in the 
extreme South-west, at Tehuacana, Texas. The object of this 
chapter is to sketch the history of these three institutions. 

WAYNESBURG COLLEGE. 

Some account of the first efforts of our people in Pennsylvania 
and Ohio to establish denominational schools is necessary as an 
introduction to the history of Waynesburg College. We have 
positive evidence that the missionaries who planted the first Cum- 
berland Presbyterian churches in Pennsylvania recognized the 
importance of education, and the necessity for an institution of 
learning on that eastern border of our denominational field. The 
Rev. Le Roy Woods, who began his labors in that State in 1832, 
testifies 1 that: " To educate up to a high standard was a fixed pur- 
pose with Morgan and Bryan. Milton Bird occupied no equivo- 
cal position in reference to this question. Donnell, Burrow, Chap- 
man, Aston, Shook — indeed all who took an active part in the 

1 Quoted from the Religious Pantagraph by Dr. A. B. Miller in his article on 
Waynesburg College in the Theological Medium, Vol. XIV. pp. 63-118, January, 
1878. Dr. Miller gives a very full and satisfactory history of the institution over 
which he has so long and so ably presided, and many of the facts in this sketch are 
gleaned from his article. 



528 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

commencement of our work in Pennsylvania — were outspoken 
friends of education — of collegiate education. ' ' 

These pioneers showed their faith on this subject by their works. 
The Pennsylvania Synod at its first meeting, which was held at 
Uniontowii, Pennsylvania, October, 1838, passed "a resolution 
encouraging the presbyteries to foster their educational interests." 
This synod at that time was made up of three presbyteries, Penn- 
sylvania and Union in western Pennsylvania, and Athens, in Ohio. 
Each of these presbyteries ' ■ was making an effort to furnish the 
facilities necessary to the liberal education of the youth under its 
influence." * 

Greene Academy, at Carmichaels, Greene county, Pennsylvania, 
in the bounds of Pennsylvania Presbytery, "was largely under 
Cumberland Presbyterian control, though it never sustained any 
ecclesiastical relation. ' ' The Rev. Joshua Iyoughran, a Cumberland 
Presbyterian minister, was its principal. u The congregation at 
Carmichaels was one of the first organized in western Pennsyl- 
vania, and under the blessing of God grew in numbers, strength, 
and usefulness." The influence of the Rev. Le Roy Woods and 
the Rev. S. E. Hudson, who were successively pastors of this 
church, did much to make Greene Academy an ally of Cumberland 
Presbyterians. Many candidates for the ministry were attracted to 
this school. Among our well-known and useful preachers who 
were in part educated here were A. J. Baird, Philip and Luther 
Axtell, Samuel McCollum, J. W. Cleaver, J. S. Gibson, and A. B. 
Miller. A. J. Baird for several terms did good service as assistant 
teacher in this institution. 

In the bounds of Union Presbytery, at Uniontown, Pennsyl- 
vania, was Madison College. In 1838 this institution was under 
the controlling influence of Cumberland Presbyterians, though the 
nominal control was in the hands of a board of trustees, which, 
according to the statement of the Rev. J. P. Weethee, 2 ( ( consisted of 
forty-five members, scattered through a dozen States. ' ' This school 
was probably established near the beginning of the century. Ac- 

J Dr. A. B. Miller, in Theological Medium. 

2 See his " Review of Dr. Miller's Sketch," in Theological Medium, Vol. XIV. 
P- 345> J ul J l8 7 8 - 




Rev. JOHN MORGAN. 
The Only Existing Likeness. 



Chapter XLV.] WAYNESBURG COLLEGE. 529 

cording to one statement, it was originally placed under the 
patronage of the Methodist Episcopal church; and another author- 
ity says that the Presbyterians at first exercised a dominant influ- 
ence in its affairs, and that it afterward passed into the hands of 
the Methodists. By reason of a division in the Methodist church 
the work of the college dwindled, and was finally suspended; and 
about 1835 a young candidate for the ministry in the Presbyterian 
church was teaching a select school in the building. 1 

John Morgan was then pastor at Uniontown, and the Cumber- 
land Presbyterian church had so grown in prominence and influ- 
ence as to attract the attention of the guardians of Madison College; 
so they sought the alliance and patronage of this new church. J. 
P, Weethee, a young man twenty-two years old, a graduate of Ohio 
University, and a candidate for the ministry, was made president, 
and the college was opened for students. For the first three weeks 
there were but three pupils. The young man who had been teach- 
ing in the college building before Weethee took charge, opened a 
rival school in another part of the town. This school ' ' was for 
many years under the supervision of a talented Presbyterian min- 
ister, ' ' and Mr. Weethee testifies that the sectarian opposition thus 
begun was continued throughout the eight years during which 
Madison College was under the patronage of our people. 

The institution, however, prospered until it had one hundred 
and fifty students. John Morgan was for a time Professor of 
Moral Science, and, when failing health compelled him to resign, 
Milton Bird was chosen his successor. Among the graduates in 
the autumn of 1841 was Azel Freeman, so well known afterward 
throughout the church as an educator and writer. " Previous to 
his graduation," says Dr. Miller, "he rendered aid as tutor in the 
college, and immediately upon his graduation he was honored with 
the appointment to the Chair of Languages. ' ' 

The Rev. L,e Roy Woods gives the following incident, showing 
the deep interest which John Morgan felt in this school and in the 
cause of education. Describing his last visit to Mr. Morgan, Mr. 
Woods says : 2 

1 Weethee's Article in Theological Medium. 2 Quoted .from the Religious 
Pantograph by Dr. Miller in the Theological Medium, January, 1878. 

34 



530 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

He was far on his way to the end of his race, and was so feeble 
that he could scarcely talk. After an interview of considerable length, 
during which we had in a very friendly manner reviewed the past and 
endeavored to forecast the future of our cause in Pennsylvania, when I 
announced to him that I would have to go, with much effort he arose 
from his couch, straightened himself to his full height, and looking me 
full in the face with an expression that I can never forget, he asked in 
an easy and familiar way, "Woods, how is Greene Academy getting 
along? " I gave him an appropriate answer. He then asked how many 
candidates were there. I gave him the number. I approached to bid 
him farewell. He took my hand in his, then hot with the fever that 
was consuming him, and said, with a tone of voice and with an ear- 
nestness of manner which showed clearly the deep interest he felt in 
the subject, and with a pressure of the hand more eloquent than words, 
"Do n't give up your school — hang on to it." Then, referring to Bryan, 
in Pittsburg, and Bird, on Tenmile, both settled pastors but not con- 
nected with any school, he said, "they may have an easier time, and 
receive a better compensation than we, but our schools will be doing 
good after we are in our graves." 

During Mr. Weethee's administration this question was brought 
before the board of trustees: "Are females, matriculated and pur- 
suing a college course, students in the eye of the law?" This ques- 
tion was decided in the affirmative, and Mr. Weethee says this 
decision made Madison College * ' perhaps the first co-educational 
college in the Union. ' ' 

In the spring of 1842 there was a serious rupture between the 
president and the board of trustees, and Weethee, Bird, and Free- 
man resigned ; and the college passed for a time into the hands of 
the Presbyterians. Of his own labors in this school, and his final 
resignation, Mr. Weethee says: 

My recitations began at sunrise, and continued through the day. I 
often heard twenty classes daily. To keep the college in motion, I at 
different times was called to fill every professorship. As the institution 
prospered and became an object of interest " worth having," the oppo- 
sition increased, until finally by a general union of Presbyterian, Meth- 
odist, and Episcopal members of the board, . . . the opposition secured 
a majority of the votes. A change of administration being contem- 
plated, and being well assured that the institution was lost to our church, 
I resigned. 

Two years after Weethee's resignation the college was practically 



Chapter XLV.] WAYNKSBURG COLLEGE. 531 

dead. The trustees heartily ' l repented of their folly in dispossess- 
ing Cumberland Presbyterians, and were quite ready to invoke 
their aid once more." In 1844 they were in correspondence with 
Pennsylvania Synod. That body at its meeting in the autumn of 
this year resolved "that the synod ought to take the necessary 
steps to secure the control ' ' of Madison College. To carry out 
this resolution a committee was appointed ( ' to offer proposals ' ' to 
the trustees. In 1845 the synod adopted a report, "which sets 
forth that the trustees of Madison College had given it into the 
synod's control. " 

The Rev. A. Freeman was again elected as a professor, and an 
earnest effort was made to revive this college. Some students were 
gathered during the winter, and with the opening of the spring 
term an additional professor was appointed. But there was ' ' only 
feeble, faint-hearted co-operation on the part of the synod, ' ' and the 
number of students was not encouraging. In the autumn of 1846 
"the two professors resigned, and the synod relinquished all care 
and control. ' ' Thus ended the connection of our people with Mad- 
ison College. 

Within the bounds of Athens Presbytery, at Beverly, Ohio, in 
1838, Benjamin Dana bequeathed certain coal lands to an academy 
to be built at that town. In 1842, John Dodge, of Beverly, deeded 
several lots to the Rev. Charles R. Barclay, in trust, ' ' for the pur- 
pose and to the use of education at and within the Muskingum 
College (afterward called Beverly College) now erected or hereafter 
to be erected on said real estate, under and by the exclusive direc- 
tion and control of the Pennsylvania Synod of the Cumberland 
Presbyterian church forever. ' ' A three-story brick building, which 
still stands, was erected on one of these lots for the intended college. 

In 1840 the Pennsylvania Synod had discussed this question: 
Shall the Synod co-operate with the General Assembly in support- 
ing Cumberland College, at Princeton, Kentucky, or undertake to 
establish a school of high order within its own bounds ? A report 
was adopted by which the synod resolved ' ' to act in its individual 
capacity/ ■ and to raise a fund of thirty thousand dollars for the 
endowment of a sy nodical college. A board of twelve trustees was 
elected, with authority: 



532 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

i. To make proposals to any board of trustees within the bounds of 
the synod, or to any number of men who shall be incorporated within 
Pennsylvania, for the purpose of securing the erection of a college 
building. 

2. To accept such terms as, in the clearest convictions of their judg- 
ments, afford the greatest advantages to the synod. 

The Rev. J. P. Weethee, whose name stands first in the list of 
these twelve trustees, informs us that this board located the pro- 
posed synodical college at Beverly, Ohio, ( ' induced to that action 
by the Dodge and Dana grants," and that this was the real origin 
of Beverly College. A liberal charter was granted to this institu- 
tion by the legislature of Ohio, in 1843. Mr. Weethee was elected 
to the presidency. He says: 

I removed to Beverly in the fall of 1842, and took charge of the 
students I could find. The location of the college was soon found to 
be not what we had anticipated. The town population was then incon- 
siderable, and the surrounding country was divided in its patronage by 
the Ohio University and Marietta College. Our denomination was 
weak, and could afford us but a few students. The college building 
was not sufficiently finished to be occupied. The winter that followed 
was very severe and protracted. We made our hotel room our recita- 
tion room. . . . The Dodge and Dana bequests did not then yield a 
dime, and we were left with scarcely enough to discharge our board 
bills. 

How long Mr. Weethee continued his efforts in this school we 
are not informed, nor do we know who were his successors in the 
direct work of teaching. In 1848 the synod recommended u the 
tender of the Beverly property to the General Assembly for the use 
of a theological seminary." Reports were adopted in 1849 and 
1850, deploring the condition of this college; and in 1851 a com- 
mittee summed up the state of things in these words: "No school 
in operation at present, no agent in the field to solicit funds for the 
institution, no endowment fund on hand, no apparatus, no library, 
no professors or teachers. ' ' This institution never had a graduate, 
and it can scarcely be said that it "ever had an existence as a col- 
lege." After the Ohio Synod was formed in 1853, the management 
of this school was handed over to that body, though, by some neg- 
lect or oversight, the charter was never so changed as to transfer the 



Chapter XLV.] WAYNESBURG COLLEGE. 533 

legal control and the ownership of the property from Pennsylvania 
Synod to Ohio Synod. 

The efforts of Pennsylvania Synod to adopt and bnild up Mad- 
ison College had failed; the hopes of those who had desired to 
make Beverly College the educational center of the synod had also 
been disappointed. Our people had no legal title to Greene Acad- 
emy — no assurance that the control of its affairs might not at any 
time be taken out of their hands. Therefore, in April, 1849, Penn- 
sylvania Presbytery declared that its educational interests impe- 
riously demanded that an institution of learning should be estab- 
lished in its bounds, and appointed a committee of five " to receive 
proposals for the location and establishment of such an institu- 
tion." When the presbytery met in the autumn following the 
committee reported proposals from Waynesburg and Carmichaels, 
both in Greene County, Pennsylvania. • "Waynesburg offered a 
considerably larger sum than Carmichaels for the erection of a 
building, and was chosen as the location of what finally became 
the educational enterprise of the whole church in Pennsylvania." 
The same autumn "the Rev. Joshua L,oughran left Greene Acad- 
emy and went to Waynesburg, where he built up a high school 
simultaneously with the preliminary steps of the presbytery for 
the founding of a college, and which school was merged into the 
college." 

The new building, * ' a three-story brick edifice, seventy by fifty 
feet," was erected by the citizens of Waynesburg at a cost of six 
thousand dollars. Work on it was begun in the spring of 1850, 
and it was fully completed in the fall of the following year. ' ' On 
the first Tuesday in November, 1851, the college went into formal 
operation in this new building." The Rev. Joshua Loughran, 
A.M., had been chosen president, the Rev. R. M. Fish, A.B., Pro- 
fessor of Mathematics, and A. B. Miller and Frank Patterson, 
tutors. Miss Margaret K. Bell had been employed in the fall of 
1850 to take charge of a school for young ladies, with the design 
of founding a female seminary in connection with the college. 
She became principal of what was afterward known as the Female 
Department. Three young ladies were graduated in this depart- 
ment in the autumn of 1852. 



534 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

A year later, September 28, 1853, the first Commencement in 
the college proper was held. At this time, besides four young 
ladies who received diplomas from the Female Department, four 
young men, among them A. B. Miller, were graduated in the reg- 
ular college course. 

The charter, which was granted in March, 1850, placed the 
government of the college in the hands of a board of trustees, a 
majority of whom were to be elected by Pennsylvania Presbytery. 
In 1853 the college was transferred to the control of Pennsylvania 
Synod. Since then all the educational efforts of our church on 
its eastern border have been concentrated in this institution. Dr. 
Miller sums up the precise relations of the Cumberland Presbyte- 
rian church to Waynesburg College in these words: 

1. The charter secures to the synod the perpetual use of the prop- 
erty, provided the synod sustains therein at least three professors. (The 
charter makes no requirement as to the manner in which the professors 
are to be supported.) 

2. Of the twenty-one trustee?, the charter grants to the synod the 
appointment of twelve. (The synod has, in fact, for twenty-four years, 
appointed the whole number of trustees.) 

3. By mutual agreement it is a by-law that the trustees shall elect 
no person to a professorship until the synod has first nominated the 
person for the place. 

4. The endowment fund of the college is held by another board, 
styled "The Board of Trust of the College Endowment Fund of Penn- 
sylvania Synod," consisting of five members appointed by the synod, 
and acting under a charter securing to this board all needful powers 
and perpetual succession. 

Prof. Fish having resigned, the Rev. A. B. Miller was elected 
to the chair of Mathematics, October, 1853, at a salary of three 
hundred dollars a year. The want of an adequate financial sup- 
port was probably the chief cause of the resignation of President 
Ivoughran, which took place August, 1855. During his connec- 
tion with the college Mr. L,oughran also preached to the Waynes- 
burg congregation. Dr. Miller testifies that he possessed ' ' excel- 
lencies that made him a valuable man in the class-room; " that he 
was "a great reader, a good, thinker, and could hold a class spell- 
bound for an hour," and make a ''recitation in his room a de- 



Chapter XLV.] WAYNESBURG COLLEGE. 535 

light." But he was unable or unwilling to grapple with the 
financial difficulties which beset the college, and so yielded its 
management to other hands. 

The synod nominated the Rev. J. P. Weethee as Mr. Lough- 
ran' s successor, and he was elected president by the board of 
trustees. Though Mr. Weethee had ceased to be a Cumberland 
Presbyterian, and at that time ' ; did not belong to any denomina- 
tion, ' ' x yet he professed unabated attachment to our church ; and 
his doctrinal views, as explained by himself, were thought by the 
synod u to be no serious barrier to his nomination." 2 

Dr. Miller says: "Mr. Weethee entered upon his duties with a 
strong popular sentiment in his favor. . . . He brought into the 
college a spirit of improvement, and an earnest purpose to build 
up, and the first year of his labors was marked with decided prog- 
ress." But difficulties afterward arose, growing in part out of 
dissatisfaction with the new president's peculiar religious views, and 
in part out of questions connected with the internal management 
of the institution. At the end of the third year of his presidency, 
in the autumn of 1858, on account of these difficulties, and because 
he ' ' was not paid according to contract, ' ' Mr. Weethee resigned. 

The friends of the college were much discouraged, and ' l feared 
that this educational effort would terminate in a repetition of the 
Madison College trouble. ' ' Some advocated the re-election of the 
Rev. Joshua Loughran to the presidency, and he was written to on 
the subject; ' ( but having been once starved out, he made conditions 
which the synod pronounced impracticable." 3 The Hon. John C. 
Flenniken was made president pro tern. The Rev. S. H. Jeffery, 
A.M., pastor of the Waynesburg -Presbyterian church, was called 
to the chair of Natural Science, and the Rev. A. J. McGlumphy, 
who had just graduated, was appointed Professor of Mathematics. 
The real work of managing the internal affairs of the institution 
fell on the Rev. A. B. Miller, who was vice-president by priority 
of appointment. Mrs. Miller (formerly Miss Margaret K. Bell) was 
still principal of the Female Department, and continued in this 
position until her death in 1874. 

x Weethee's Review of Dr. Miller's Sketch, Theological Medium, July, 1878. 
2 Dr. Miller, Ibid., January, 1878. 3 Dr. Miller. 



536 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

Dr. Miller was duly nominated and elected to the presidency 
in the fall of 1859. At tne same tnne Milton E. Garrison, A.M., 
a graduate of Allegheny College, Meadville, Pennsylvania, was 
elected Professor of Greek and Latin. A year later W. G. Scott, 
A.M., became Professor of Mathematics. 

Of the condition and prospects of the college when he was 
called to the presidency, and of his perplexing and responsible 
duties, Dr. Miller says: 

A debt of over three thousand dollars hung upon the college. My 
salary was very inadequate; and, worse, there was no reasonable ground 
of hope that it would be paid if the other necessary professors were 
employed and paid. Dissension had turned a portion of the commu- 
nity against the college, and had begotten in the public mind a feeling 
of distrust in regard to the future. Accepting the position, and going 
to work under these unprornising circumstances, it seemed to me more 
like an effort to make a college than the honor of presiding over one — 
nor have I yet outgrown that feeling. My special aims were, first, to 
get the college out of debt, and to establish confidence in its value and 
permanence. To accomplish the former, and to keep the necessary 
teaching force in the college without incurring debt, has been the con- 
stant ever-perplexing problem through all these years. After looking 
in vain for other sources of reliable pecuniary dependence, I found it 
necessary to assume toward the college, in fact, the relation of president, 
financial agent, and board of trustees. Taught by bitter experience 
how great are these cares thus thrown on a college president, and ad- 
mitting that ordinarily such a course could promise only financial ruin, 
I must record my profound conviction that in this case nothing but the 
unbounded liberty allowed me in the management of the college could 
have saved it from hopeless failure. 

As tutor and professor and president, Dr. Miller has labored 
incessantly in this institution for nearly thirty-six years, and is still 
at his post faithful to his life-time work of building up a Cumber- 
land Presbyterian college in Pennsylvania. In his article already 
quoted, he says: 

I have been compelled to preach in order to live, sometimes supply- 
ing points twenty miles distant; I have been compelled to deny myself 
books greatly needed; to stay at home when I should have traveled; to 
walk many miles because I could not afford to pay hack fare; to be 
harassed with debts that have eaten up the mind as cancers eat the 
flesh; in short, to do a great many things, and to leave undone a great 



Chapter XLV.] WAYNESBURG COLLEGE. 537 

many things, which doing and not doing greatly hindered my usefulness 
as a public servant of the church. I once turned superintendent of 
schools, and walked all over Greene county in order to save a little 
money, and still the college went on, while the nation was fighting its 
battles. At another time I edited the Cumberland Presbyterian, did 
all the necessary correspondence of the office, and kept the books, at 
the same time teaching six hours a day in the college, exercising gen- 
eral oversight of its financial affairs, and often preaching twice on the 
Sabbath. 

Through, all the years until her death (1874), Mrs. Miller, as 
principal of the Female Department, was her husband's faithful 
co-worker. To the young ladies under her charge "she was at 
once a teacher, a counselor, a sympathizing friend. ' ' She labored 
almost without pecuniary return, her salary being ' ' for a long time 
three hundred dollars a year, and never over four hundred dollars, ' - 
and the full sum of even this pittance was not paid for any year. 
Through twenty-four years her time and strength were given with 
the utmost unselfishness and enthusiasm to this work. She really 
sacrificed her life to build up this institution. Without her brave 
self-denying work and influence, the enterprise would probably 
have failed. In addition to duties in her home, which was con- 
stantly open for the entertainment of the friends of the college, 
she usually taught six hours a day. ' ' It can not be doubted that 
her early death was the result of exhaustion from overwork. ' ' 

Since 1852 Waynesburg College has each year sent forth a class 
of educated men and women, many of whom have filled important 
places of trust and usefulness; and their influence and work have 
been no inconsiderable factor in promoting the progress of the 
Cumberland Presbyterian church. The largest class ever gradu- 
ated by this institution was that of 1873, consisting of twenty mem- 
bers — eight young women and twelve young men. The same year 
the college had three hundred students, the largest number ever 
reported in attendance. The first five Cumberland Presbyterian 
missionaries sent to Japan were all graduates of this school. 

Waynesburg College has not only sent forth preachers and mis- 
sionaries, but it has furnished many successful teachers to other 
schools and colleges, and has trained up its own most valued and 
efficient teachers and professors. As has been seen, Dr. Miller was 



538 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

himself a member of trie first graduating class. Prof. W. G. Scott, 
who has so long and with such ability filled the chair of Mathe- 
matics, was a member of the class of 1857. When Prof. M. B. 
Garrison died, April 7, 1870, after ten years of valuable service as 
Professor of Greek and Latin, the vacancy thus caused was filled 
temporarily by J. W. Freeland, A.B., who graduated in 1868. 
Afterward J. M. Garrison, A.B., a member of the class of 1870, 
was appointed to this chair. He was succeeded in 1872 by J. M. 
Crow, A.B., who had received his diploma from the college the 
year before. After teaching a year he spent two years in Germany 
and Switzerland prosecuting his studies. Returning in 1875, he 
resumed his work in the college, winning great popularity ; but on 
account of the insufficiency of his salary he resigned his position. 
He was not the first nor the last valued instructor whom this insti- 
tution has lost by reason of its meager financial resources. John 
F. White, B.S., who was graduated in the same class with Prof. 
Crow, was made Professor of Natural Science. Going to Harvard 
University to pursue his chemical studies, he was made assistant 
professor there, continuing several years in that position. Prof. 
Albert McGinnis, A.M., who graduated in 1878, and afterward 
studied in Leipsic, Germany, was elected to the chair of Greek and 
Latin, and proved a most thorough and successful teacher. He 
recently resigned this position to accept the chair of Belles-Lettres 
and the vice-presidency of Lincoln University, Illinois. 

Among other graduates of Waynesburg College who served for 
a time as members of its faculty were James R. Rinehart, Lewis 
Sayers, John S. Hughes, H. D. Patton, J. C. Gwynn, and A. T. 
Silveus. Among the ladies who, after their graduation from this 
institution, proved efficient teachers in it, Dr. Miller mentions Miss 
Martha Bayard, now Mrs. J. M. Howard, of Nashville, Tennessee; 
Miss Minerva Lindsey, now Mrs. A. Freeman, of Colorado; Miss 
Juliet E. Barclay, now Mrs. Wilson, of Iowa; Miss M. C. Carter, 
afterward Mrs. W. L. Parkinson, and since deceased ; Miss M. Lou 
Hager, now Mrs. M. L. Smith, of Illinois; Mrs. Estelle Biddle 
Clark, now of Nashville, Tennessee ; and Miss Emma J. Downey, 
afterward Mrs. S. F. Hoge, now deceased. 

As the Theological School, as well as all the other departments 



Chapter XLV.] WAYNESBURG CoiXEGE. 



539 



of Cumberland University, at Lebanon, Tennessee, was closed dur- 
ing the civil war, the necessity for some facilities for the theolog- 
ical training of our young men preparing for the ministry became 
pressing. From the Minutes of the General Assembly we learn 
that Pennsylvania Synod, in connection with the board of trustees 
of Waynesburg College, was, in 1863, "making efforts to establish 
a Chair of Theology." The Rev. S. T. Anderson, D.D., was 
elected to this professorship. He entered upon his duties in the 
autumn of 1864, and was also made vice-president of the college. 
In connection with his duties as pastor of the Waynesburg congre- 
gation, he did good service for several years as teacher of Hebrew 
and ethics. This theological professorship, being without endow- 
ment, was not made permanent. No successor to Dr. Anderson 
was elected. 

In the autumn of 1873 "the purpose to erect a new building 
for the college was projected." A magnificent edifice, with splen- 
did rooms for recitations, for libraries, apparatus, and all other re- 
quirements of a first-class college, was planned. In the erection 
of this building debts have been avoided, and the progress of the 
work has therefore been slow. Most of the rooms are now finished, 
and it is u the finest single college building in western Pennsyl- 
vania," and by far the most beautiful and imposing structure of 
the kind ever erected by Cumberland Presbyterians. 

We have already seen that in 1840, when Pennsylvania Synod 
decided to act in its own individual capacity in establishing and 
sustaining a college, it resolved to raise thirty thousand dollars for 
endowment. Pennsylvania Presbytery, ten years later, when it 
accepted the control' of Waynesburg College, determined to raise 
an endowment, and again the mark was set at thirty thousand dol- 
lars. When the institution was handed over to the Synod's con- 
trol, the plan already adopted by the presbytery was continued. 
The congregations were canvassed by agents. In the General 
Assembly of 1853 the Committee on Education reported that the 
funds for the endowment of this school were in part already raised. 
A similar report next year says the endowment then secured was 
from three thousand to five thousand dollars. In 1855 fifteen thou- 
sand dollars was reported, and the next year the Minutes state that 



54-0 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

nearly thirty thousand dollars had been recently raised. The re- 
port of 1863 places the sum at twenty-five thousand dollars; that 
of 1865 at thirty-five thousand dollars. In succeeding years still 
larger sums were reported. 

Up to 1 88 1 all the endowment raised for this institution was by 
the sale of scholarships. A perpetual scholarship was sold for one 
hundred dollars, and a full course scholarship for thirty dollars. 
These scholarships were transferable, and could be used immedi- 
ately. Ten or twenty thousand dollars raised in this way would 
create scholarships enough to crowd the college with students 
without yielding an income large enough to support one teacher. 
"It was," says Dr. Miller, " certainly an error to allow students to 
use these scholarships before a sufficient fund had been secured to 
support the required number of professors. As it was, the plan 
left no tuition fees, and but little in the stead. ' ' Purchasers were 
not required to pay actual cash for the scholarships, but only gave 
their notes, with the privilege of retaining the principal so long as 
they paid the annual interest. This interest often proved hard to 
collect, and many of the notes reported from time to time as en- 
dowment proved worthless. President Miller's sketch, written in 
1878, says: u Any thing like an exact estimate of the amount of 
reliable endowment at this time can not be given, though the 
amount is certainly not less than at any previous period, recent 
additions fully making up for losses during the last three years of 
financial failures." 

The year 1881 was observed by Pennsylvania Cumberland Pres- 
byterians as a sort of denominational jubilee. Fifty years before, 
the missionaries sent by the General Assembly began their work in 
that field. The Pennsylvania Synod had recommended that an 
effort should be made to raise a sum sufficient to complete the en- 
dowment of three professorships as a fit offering to commemorate 
this semi-centennial year. Thirty thousand dollars was afterward 
fixed as the sum to be raised "as a semi-centennial offering." 
Mainly through the persistent efforts of the Rev. P. H. Crider, 
cash and notes reaching this amount were secured. Efforts fur- 
ther to increase the endowment are still continued, and the finan- 
cial condition of the school is now more hopeful than ever before. 



Chapter XLV.] LINCOLN UNIVERSITY. 541 

Up to the year 1878 over two thousand students had been en- 
rolled in the several classes and departments of Waynesburg Col- 
lege. In the years which have followed hundreds of others have 
been added to the list. This school is not only a center of educa- 
tion and culture, but it has exercised a permanent and wide-spread 
religious influence. It has been the center of numerous revivals, 
in some of which nearly every student has been enlisted either 
as a worker or a convert. Speaking of the importance of the 
work and influence of Waynesburg College, President Miller says: 
( ' The money put into this institution, the prayers of the church 
in its behalf, and the labors and sacrifices of those who have been 
its faithful instructors, have been indeed as the 'handful of corn 
in the earth on the top of the mountain, ' the fruit of which already 
shakes like Lebanon. Standing like a bulwark and a lighthouse 
on the eastern border of our denomination, it seems to me not 
only indispensable to the synod that controls it, but in some meas- 
ure as involving in its future career the destiny of the Cumberland 
Presbyterian church. ' ' 

LINCOLN UNIVERSITY. 

Lincoln University was founded in the year 1864 by the Synods 
of Indiana, Sangamon, Central Illinois, Illinois, and Iowa. The 
civil war then raging had so divided the country that it was no 
longer practicable or indeed possible for the churches of the North- 
west to patronize the schools in the South. These churches were 
compelled to establish schools for the education of their children. 

Long before the war attempts were made in various parts of 
the country north of the Ohio to found schools of a high order. 
In the States of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa 
academies and colleges were started, and many of them accom- 
plished much good in the cause of Christian education. At Vir- 
ginia, Illinois, L T nion College did good service for a number of 
years. The same may be said of Cherry Grove Seminary and 
Mt. Zion Academy in Illinois, and Delany Academy, in Indiana. 

When the States of the North-west established public schools, 
these academies for the want of sufficient endowment were forced 
to suspend operations. At the beginning of the war the free 



54^ Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

schools were in full blast, and they were at that time very popular. 
Private and denominational schools were almost entirely deserted. 
The churches of all denominations saw that if they would have 
the education of their children under their own care, they must 
build schools which could compete with and even surpass the 
schools of the State. Long years of struggle and anxiety passed 
away. Good men prayed and wrestled with the grave problem 
before them. At the meetings of presbyteries and synods, and in 
private gatherings, the subject of education was discussed. 

In the darkest days of our civil strife the good men who stood 
by the church in the North-west did not abandon the cause of 
Christian education. It has often been charged against Cumber- 
land Presbyterians that they oppose education. But no better 
evidence of their devotion to this cause can be given than the 
repeated and heroic struggles they put forth in the North-west 
in behalf of higher education. There was scarcely a presbytery 
in all that region that did not attempt to establish a school of 
high grade. All their efforts were not successful, nor were all of 
them wise and judicious, but the zeal of the people is to be com- 
mended if their judgment is not. 

The war caused our people to feel more keenly and deeply than 
ever before the need of schools, and, at a time when thousands 
were faltering and ready to give up, the idea of founding Lincoln 
University was conceived. It is not known who was the first to 
suggest the idea. It is probable that the suggestion grew out of 
many anxious and prayerful conferences of brethren. There were 
at that time a number of educated and devoted ministers in the 
territory here mentioned. Among this number none stood higher 
than the Rev. Azel Freeman, D. D. He lived at Newburgh, Indiana, 
and was engaged in teaching in Delany Academy as its principal. 
He was a man of great and earnest piety, a most devout Christian 
scholar. He was always an ardent supporter of the cause of learn- 
ing. The Rev. J. B. Logan, D.D., a man of great energy and 
activity, was editing a paper at Alton, Illinois, the Western Cum- 
berland Presbyterian. He earnestly advocated the establishment 
of schools for the better education of the rising ministry. The 
columns of his paper were open for the discussion of this subject. 



Chapter XLV.] LINCOLN UNIVERSITY. 543 

Dr. Freeman wrote many articles on the importance of a well- 
endowed school in the West. 

It was in the Synod of Indiana, I think, that the suggestion of 
a school under the combined patronage of the five synods was first 
made. It is probable that the resolution passed by that synod was 
written by Dr. Freeman. At any rate he was one of its most en- 
thusiastic advocates, and it was due to his sagacity and urgent 
appeals that the measure got before the Synods of Illinois and 
Iowa. When the proposition was once made, it became very pop- 
ular. All over the three States the matter was discussed with great 
earnestness and approved with great unanimity. 

Commissioners were appointed in the fall of 1864 to prosecute 
the work. They wrote and talked in the interest of the new move- 
ment. By order of the synods they advertised for bids for the 
location of the institution. Several places were put in nomination. 
Newburgh, Indiana, and Mt. Zion, Cherry Grove, Virginia, and Lin- 
coln, Illinois, were the most prominent places in the contest. The 
commissioners visited each of the rival towns and heard the proposi- 
tions of the people. Lincoln was finally chosen as the most eligible 
and suitable location for the new school. The citizens of that en- 
terprising and flourishing young town made a very generous offer. 
They agreed to erect a building worth not less than thirty thousand 
dollars. The commissioners on their part pledged the church for 
fifty thousand dollars endowment. The agreement was that the 
school should not begin operations until the money was all raised. 

A board of trustees was appointed and a charter was obtained. 
The institution was chartered as a university — a great mistake. 
Agents were sent into the field to secure endowment. The plan 
for endowing the institution was devised by the board of trustees. 
They had had but little experience in the work of building and 
endowing universities. They adopted the plan of selling scholar- 
ships, in order to secure the needed fund. Scholarships giving 
very great advantages were sold at very low figures. A two hun- 
dred dollar scholarship was made practically perpetual. It secured 
the tuition of one scholar at a time in the literary department. 
Five hundred dollars procured a scholarship admitting the pupil to 
all the departments of the proposed university. The liberal terms 



544 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

of the scholarships and the inflated condition of the currency made 
it very easy to sell them. Many bought them under the impression 
that they were making a good investment. The agents soon suc- 
ceeded in raising in notes the sum agreed upon. Dr. Freeman did 
excellent service in this work of securing endowment. He raised 
about thirty thousand dollars of the fifty thousand. The Rev. 
James Ritchey, of Indiana, was also a very active and successful 
agent. Richard M. Beard, Esq., from first to last, was perhaps the 
most successful agent in the field. There was a great deal of en- 
thusiasm in this work, and it was done in a very short time. 

In the meantime the people of Lincoln began work on the 
building. In the year 1865 the corner-stone was laid. The gov- 
ernor of the State, Gen. Richard J. Oglesby, delivered the oration 
at the laying of the corner-stone. It was a grand day in the his- 
tory of the church in the North-west. It is due to the people of 
Lincoln to say that they did far better than they agreed to do. In- 
stead of a thirty thousand dollar house, such as they had agreed to 
build, they laid the foundation for a building, which when com- 
pleted cost about sixty thousand dollars. By far the greater part 
of this sum was given by the people of the town. 

It must be remembered that the currency was badly inflated at 
the time the work was undertaken. The money contributed to the 
endowment was not worth more than fifty cents on the dollar. 
Many who subscribed in flush times had to make their payments in 
hard times. This caused a great falling off in the collections. 
Many who had pledged contributions failed in business, and many 
others failed to pay. The trustees, however, did not stop at fifty 
thousand dollars. Agents were kept in the field nearly all the time 
for years. They more than made good the losses. 

The school was opened in the year 1866, on the 16th day of 
November. The faculty consisted of the Rev. A. Freeman, D.D., 
President; the Rev. S. Richards, A.M., Professor of Ancient Lan- 
guages; the Rev. A. J. McGlumphy, A.M., Professor of Mathe- 
matics; J. B. Latimer, A.B., Professor of Natural Sciences; Mrs. 
Mary E. Miller, Matron, and Teacher of English Literature. The 
school was co-educational from the first. The course of study laid 
down by the first faculty was full and complete. Young ladies 



Chapter XLV.] LINCOLN UNIVERSITY. 545 

were admitted to all the classes on terms exactly the same as those 
required of the young men. 

The first year was typical in the history of the institution. 
During that time nearly all the main features of the school were 
outlined by its able and scholarly faculty, and particularly by its 
noble president. It is due to Dr. Freeman more than to any other 
man that the policy which has ever since guided the faculty in the 
management of the school was developed. The organization of 
classes, the formation of literary societies, the foundation of the 
library, the rules and the government of the institution were all 
developed by that most devout scholar and teacher and his assist- 
ants. He was at the head of the institution four years and during 
that time he showed a zeal and devotion to the school which has 
never been surpassed by any man in the church. He perhaps 
placed too many restrictions upon students. But the law of kind- 
ness was on his tongue, and he governed by love. He was driven 
from his great work by the unwise clamors of a few who were too 
zealous of orthodoxy. He held views not unlike those held by the 
professors of Andover Seminary in Massachusetts. These views he 
never sought to propagate. As a teacher of youth he never in- 
flicted his theological opinions upon any one. If he had been at 
the head of a theological seminary there might have been some 
excuse for the war that was made upon him. After serving the 
institution most satisfactorily for four years, he retired without a 
word of remonstrance, and pursued a course worthy of all admi- 
ration. 

He was succeeded by the Rev. J. C. Bowdon, D.D., who was 
pastor of the church at Evansville, Indiana. Dr. Bowdon was a 
man of great vivacity, most genial manners, and fine intellectual 
powers. He ruled by a method entirely different from that em- 
ployed by his predecessor. He made but few rules, and yet he was 
universally loved and obeyed. He gave the institution a new im- 
petus in the line of culture. Dr. Freeman was a man for thorough 
scholarship; Dr. Bowdon gave more thought to culture and social 
life. He made the faculty and the school the center of the social 
life of the community. He inspired young men with an ambition 
for the highest social as well as literary culture. He taught more 
35 



546 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

by example than by precept. Never was there a more genial or 
more companionable man. He had a vast fund of humor and wit 
ever at ready command. He was a preacher of strong powers, and 
wherever he went he made a profound impression for the cause he 
represented. He had a great power over a popular audience. It 
was due to him largely that the school gained a wide popularity 
throughout the entire church. He was born and educated at the 
South, and he had hosts of friends and admirers in every part of the 
denomination. His brief career ended before he had time to de- 
velop his purposes. He died while in office in the year 1873 among 
his old friends in Mississippi, and there he was buried. He was 
loved as few men are ever loved. 

The Rev. A. J. McGlumphy, D.D., IX. D., was elected to fill 
the vacancy caused by the death of Dr. Bowdon. He entered upon 
the duties of his office in the year 1873, and continued in that posi- 
tion until June, 1887. President McGlumphy was a good executive 
and an admirable teacher. During his administration an effort was 
made to start a law school and also a theological department. The 
Hon. R. C. Ewing, of Missouri, a son of Finis Ewing, was elected 
Professor of L,aw. He organized classes and had a number of 
pupils. About fourteen young men entered the school and studied 
through one year. The tuition was necessarily small and the 
attendance was not large. The want of funds compelled the 
trustees to suspend this school. About the same time the depart- 
ment of theology was opened, with the Rev. S. Richards, D. D. , as 
Professor of Systematic Theology. There were but three or four 
pupils, and no money to support the teacher, and the undertaking 
had to be abandoned. 

During this time the currency of the country had resumed a 
more healthy condition. Interest 011 money began to go down. 
No tuition was paid by students. The cheap scholarships that 
were sold to secure endowment were at the command of all who 
wished to use them. They drove tuition out, and it was impossible 
to increase the number of the faculty at a time when the number 
of the students was nearly double what it ought to have been. 
Nearly all the schools in the country where the patronage of the 
university came from had enlarged their faculties, and had put into 



Chapter XLV.] LINCOLN UNIVERSITY. 547 

their courses of study new departments. The competing schools 
had the advantage in wealth, and the people soon began to take 
advantage of the better opportunities that were offered them else- 
where. The trustees had no money to employ additional teachers, 
and none to procure libraries, apparatus, and museums. The result 
was a great falling off in attendance. Efforts were made time and 
again to increase the endowment. Most of the patrons had schol- 
arships, and they did not see the necessity for more money. After 
years of struggle against odds and difficulties, President McGlum- 
phy resigned. 

The work of this institution, however, has by no means been a 
failure. It has more money now than any school in the church. 
There are nearly one hundred thousand dollars secured to the 
university, most of which is productive. There are many friends 
of the institution who are determined to stand by it. It has grad- 
uated some of the best scholars in the church. Its graduates take 
high rank in the ministry of the denomination. Several of them 
have been graduated in theology at Lebanon, Tennessee, Union 
Theological Seminary, New York, and elsewhere. A number of 
the graduates are prominent teachers in some of the best schools 
of the country. Hundreds of former students of this institution 
are useful members of the church. Two of them are missionaries 
in foreign lands, and two others have been accepted by the Board 
of Missions for the work in Japan, and are now preparing for their 
departure to that country. 

The institution has always maintained a high standard of schol- 
arship. No school in the church has more conscientiously adhered 
to the course of study laid down in its catalogue. No student 
can graduate who does not maintain a high grade of scholarship 
throughout the entire course. 

Among the members of the faculty who have done valuable 
service in the institution should be mentioned Professor A. R. 
Taylor, A.M., Ph.D., who is now principal of the State Normal 
School of Kansas. For ten years he filled the chair of natural 
sciences with great ability. His enthusiasm in the -class-room, his 
devotion to his pupils, and his accurate learning made him one of 
the most useful men in the church. As a disciplinarian and a 



548 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

Christian educator he has had but few equals in the denomination. 
Under his instruction the natural science department became very- 
popular, and his classes were always filled with the most eager and 
enthusiastic pupils. In 1882 he resigned to take charge of the 
important institution of which he is the successful president. 

Another successful teacher in the university was Professor 
William Mariner, who for many years was a shining light in Cum- 
berland University. He occupied the chair of Latin four years. 
His exact and painstaking scholarship and his rigid adherence to 
college methods did much to elevate the scholarship of this young 
and promising institution of the church. It was only the want of 
funds that compelled the board of trustees to accept his resignation. 
He was a man of great and varied general information, and he in- 
spired young men and women to study that they might reach the 
high standard of learning to which their preceptor had attained. 
Since his resignation he has lived in Washington Territory, but in 
whatever sphere he lives and labors he carries with him the true 
scholarly spirit, and surrounds himself with an influence which 
brings him honor and respect. The Rev. B. F. McCord, A.M., 
Ph. D. , filled the chair of Mathematics for fourteen years. He is a 
man of fine ability, correct literary taste, and excellent scholarship. 
He was graduated at the State University of Indiana, where he 
ranked at the head of the large class of which he was a member. 
In the school-room he was master of his subject. He taught with 
great enthusiasm and inspired his pupils with a love of study. In 
the summer of 1887 failing health caused him to seek relief from 
the work of the class-room in the less wearing duties of a business 
life. 

Among the trustees there are several men whose self-sacrificing 
devotion to the institution deserves special mention. While the 
trustees have made mistakes, it will readily be granted by all who 
know the history of the school that they have been guided by the 
most unselfish motives in all their transactions. For nearly twenty 
years Col. Robert B. Latham was a member of the board — during 
the greater part of the time its president. He was always ready 
to make any sacrifice in his power to promote the good of the uni- 
versity. Being the best known citizen of the town and the county 



Chapter XLV.] LINCOLN UNIVERSITY. 



549 



in which he lived, and still lives, he gave the school a good name 
throughout the State. His interest in the town and the community 
was always great, and every enterprise calculated to promote the 
welfare of his fellow-citizens secured his zealous support. He has 
always been a firm friend of the cause of education, and has given 
much wise counsel and years of earnest service to Lincoln Uni- 
versity. He gave liberally of his means to secure the location of 
the school, and was ever ready to lead in any thing calculated to 
help the university. For years his beautiful and spacious house 
was thrown open with the most generous hospitality on Commence- 
ment occasions to receive the students, the faculty, and their friends. 
Not being a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian church, he 
deserves this honorable mention as a friend and generous benefactor 
to one of its most important enterprises. 

The Hon. William B. Jones, for many years treasurer of the 
board of trustees, deserves respectful mention for the great interest 
which he has ever showed in the prosperity of the school. He 
labored hard for years to keep the finances in good condition. 
Much of his time was generously devoted to the interest of the 
college. He has frequently written for the church papers in be- 
half of the institution. Mr. George W. Edgar, an elder in the 
Lincoln congregation, has been a member of the board of trustees 
since the school was first organized. He has given freely of his 
money in the support of the college, and has been very liberal with 
his time in looking after the building and grounds. His home has 
always been open to the friends and patrons of Lincoln University. 
There are many other persons whose labors have contributed to the 
prosperity of the institution. It would require more space than 
can be given to the subject to record the deeds of all who are wor- 
thy of special mention. Such men as Samuel C. Parks, James A. 
Hudson, A. C. Boyd, the Rev. W. C. Bell, and the Rev. F. Bridg- 
man have served as trustees with great fidelity and usefulness. 

Among the endowing agents who have from first to last been 
engaged in working for the college must be mentioned the Rev. J. 
A. Chase, the Rev. Jesse S. Grider, and the Rev. J. C. Van Patten. 
They all did good work at various times. The Rev. J. S. Grider 
acted as agent but one year, but during that time he did a very 



550 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

valuable work. He secured in notes and bequests about thirty-five 
thousand dollars. One bequest of ten thousand dollars obtained 
by him has already been realized. It was made by Mr. Alfred 
Bryan, of Logan county, Illinois, who was for many years an active 
elder in the congregation known as Sugar Creek. 

Lincoln University has been in existence but little over twenty 
years, but it may be safely said that no school in the church has 
done a better work in that time. It has graduated in the literary 
department alone just 186 pupils. These men and women are for 
the most part members in the Cumberland Presbyterian church, 
and in the General Assembly and our missionary boards, and in 
all the councils of the church, their influence is felt and acknowl- 
edged. 

The foregoing sketch of Lincoln University is furnished for this 
volume by the Rev. D. M. Harris, D.D., Ph.D., who became Pro- 
fessor of Natural Science in that institution in the fall of 1868. He 
served in that position two years. In the fall of 1871 he was elected 
to the chair of Greek and Latin. He filled this important position 
with great ability until 1883. He did much to build up the inter- 
ests of the institution and to promote thorough classical scholar- 
ship among the students. After nearly fifteen years of faithful and 
valuable service as a member of the faculty, he resigned and ac- 
cepted his present position as editor of the Cumberland Presbyte- 
rian at Nashville, Tennessee. 

In June, 1887, President McGlumphy and the entire faculty 
of this institution resigned. Subsequently A. E. Turner, A.M., 
Professor of Natural Sciences, was re-elected, and he has resumed 
the duties of that chair. Theodore F. Brantley was also re-elected 
to the chair of Greek and Latin, but did not accept it. Albert 
McGinnis, A.M., was elected Professor of Belles-Lettres, and vice- 
president, and he is at this time (October, 1887,) acting president. 
Albeit T. Davis, A.B., of Hyde Park, Mass., was chosen Professor 
of Greek and Latin, I. W. P. Buchanan, A. B. , Professor of Mathe- 
matics. 

The full list of teachers in the Literary and Scientific depart- 
ment from the organization of this institution to the present time 
is as follows: 



Chapter XLV.] TRINITY UNIVERSITY. 551 

Presidents and Professors of Mental and Moral Philosophy. — 
Rev. A. Freeman, D.D., Rev. J. C. Bowdon, D.D., Rev. A. J. 
McGlumphy, D.D., IX. D. 

Professors of Mathematics. — Rev. A. J. McGlumphy, A.M., 
Rev. B. F. McCord, A.M., Ph.D., I. W. P. Buchanan, A.B. 

Professors of Ancient Languages. — Rev. S. Richards, D.D., 
Rev. D. M. Harris, D.D., Ph.D., William Mariner, A.M., Theodore 
Brantley, A.M., and Albert T. Davis, A.B. 

Professors of Natural Sciences. — J. F. Latimer, A.M., Rev. D. 
M. Harris, A.M., A. R. Taylor, Ph.B., O. A. Keach, Ph.B., Rev. 
W. J. McDavid, A.M., Charles R. Krone, A.M., and A. E. Tur- 
ner, A.M. 

Professor of Belles-Lettres. — Albert McGinnis, A.M. 

Professors of Elocution.— $. S. Hamil, A.M., Mrs. E. W. Felt, 
Rev. L. P. Marshall, A.B. 

Matrons, and Teachers of E7iglish Literature. — Mrs. M. E. 
Miller, Miss Minerva Lindsey, Mrs. C. E. W. Miller, and Miss S. 
J. McCord. 

Tutors.—]. R. Starkey, A.M., A. H. Mills, A. M., A. E. Tur- 
ner, A.M., and M. A. Montgomery, A.M. 

There are four literary societies connected with the university — 
the Neatrophean, the Amicitian, the Amasagacian, and Athenian. 
The first two are for ladies, and the others for gentlemen. 

The property and assets of the university consist of : 

A campus and buildings worth $ 60,000 

Furniture, library, and fixtures 5,000 

Endowment fund invested and otherwise available 60,000 
Endowment, good, but not yet available .... 40,000 

Total property and assets $165,000 

TRINITY UNIVERSITY. 

The history of Trinity University furnishes one of the finest 
illustrations of magnanimous compromise for the sake of concen- 
tration that our church ever had. When this institution was 
founded, there were under the control of our people three small 
colleges in different parts of Texas, and these all agreed to com- 
bine their resources into one institution, and leave the selection of 



552 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

the location to the three synods which the church then had in that 
State. The sketch here given of the consolidated institution is 
partly from the pen of Dr. E. B. Crisman. He says: 

In 1866 the Texas, Brazos, and Colorado Synods of the Cumberland 
Presbyterian church, feeling the necessity of an institution of learning 
of high order within their bounds, by concert of action, appointed each 
a committee to consider jointly the propriety of establishing such an 
institution at that time. The committee so appointed met for consulta- 
tion at Dallas in December, 1867; and, coming to the conclusion that the 
immediate establishment of such an institution was not only proper but 
entirely practicable, concurred in a report to their respective synods 
recommending its early location, and advising that the claims of no 
point to the location should be considered unless the sum of twenty-five 
thousand dollars had first been raised as a bonus. 

Upon the reception of this report the synods, respectively, appointed 
another committee of four each, to act jointly in selecting a location for 
the contemplated institution, with instructions that after making the 
location, they should take the steps necessary to put the school into 
active operation. Four points — Dallas, Waxahachie, Round Rock, and 
Tehuacana — raised the prescribed bonus, and solicited the location. 

The commissioners then visited each of these places, and after 
several meetings and conferences they unanimously selected Te- 
huacana hills as the location offering the best advantages. Colonel 
Boyd, who lived at this place, had offered to give fifteen hundred 
acres of land, besides other property, including buildings which 
would answer for temporary use. There was then no town at 
Tehuacana. The place is six miles from the railroad, but is in 
some respects all the better for that. What disadvantages belong 
to such a location could all be overcome by an ample endowment. 
Health, morality, and freedom from temptations ought to weigh 
more than all the advantages afforded by a large city. 

The Rev. W. E. Beeson, D.D., was the first president of Trin- 
ity University, and its first session was begun September, 1869. It 
was from the beginning open to both sexes. 

Wild lands and lands at Tehuacana were subscribed for the en- 
dowment of this school, and estimated then at figures far beyond 
what was found afterward to be their value. The figures at which 
this endowment was at first counted were eighty thousand dollars. 



Chapter XLV.] TRINITY UNIVERSITY. 553 

Three buildings have succeeded each other in serving the purposes 
of this institution. The first was a large frame building, donated 
by Colonel Boyd. The second was a much larger stone building, 
but utterly destitute of any architectural pretensions. The third, 
now about finished, is an enlargement of the second by an ap- 
proved architect. It is said to be a fine structure. 

In the first catalogue (1869-1870) were enrolled the names of 
one hundred students. The patronage afterward grew to four hun- 
dred and twenty. Then dissensions entered the field where that 
happy spirit of concentration had reigned, and the patronage began 
to decline. It is now, however, increasing once more, and the en- 
dowing agent is pushing his work. The endowment is now re- 
ported at fifty-three thousand dollars. Much of it is unproductive 
at present, being invested in wild lands. As these lands are not 
taxed, they should by all means be held till the country fills up, 
when they will become very valuable. 

Dr. Beeson resigned in 1877, and, after an interregnum, the 
Rev. B. G. Mcl^eskey, D.D., was chosen as his successor. In 1885 
Dr. McLeskey died. L,. A. Johnson, one of the professors, was 
called temporarily to discharge the duties of president, and in the 
summer of 1887 he was elected permanently to that office. The 
number of teachers in this institution is generally sixteen. 

One of our college presidents from another State some years 
ago visited Trinity University, and published the following state- 
ments: 

There are several considerations which add to the importance of 
that enterprise. First among these is the character of the young people 
at Trinity University. Though I have been accustomed all my life to 
meeting college students, I never met an assembly of young people 
who showed more promise of usefulness than those I saw at Tehuacana. 
For the sake of these dear young people we should endow and sustain 
this college. Another fact which presses upon me is the vast future of 
Texas. No other State in America is now growing as fast. No other 
has such resources for maintaining a vast immigration. Nine hundred 
immigrants a day, all the year round, pour into these vast vacuums, and 
yet the limitless wastes of rich prairies scarcely feel the difference. 
What a future this State is to have! Now, God in his goodness ena- 
bled our church to begin here with the beginning. There was Cum- 



554 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

berland Presbyterian blood shed at the Alamo. Our pioneer preachers 
were out on those vast plains as soon as Houston or Crockett were; 
our history mingles with the records of the State's early struggles. We 
have a chance to grow with the State's growth, and when the popula- 
tion of Texas swells to ten millions, as it soon will, the Cumberland 
Presbyterian church ought to be planted strong and sure as one of the 
mighty powers of Christ's kingdom in that empire. We are strong 
enough there now to endow a college amply. Will we be true to our 
opportunities and our duties ? 

The present endowment agent of Trinity University, Dr. B. B. 
Crisman, is a man of great energy, an alumnus of Cumberland 
University, who knows the value of real scholarship. If Texans 
will second his earnest efforts, he will soon place the endowment 
upon a footing which will itself attract liberal donations in all 
future time. 

An editorial in one of our church papers, in 1885, makes the 
following statements about Trinity University: 

This institution started out with the full and hearty co-operation of 
the entire church in the State. It has for a number of years been re- 
garded by many, both in the church and out of it, as one of the leading 
institutions in the State. It has matriculated as many as four hundred 
and twenty-five students a year. It has given instruction to not less 
than eighty young ministers, twenty -one of whom received diplomas. 
In its various departments some two thousand students from all parts 
of Texas, and some from other States, have received instruction. . . . 
Quite a number of its graduates now occupy prominent positions of 
trust and honor. Some of the leading young ministers of the church 
in Texas are from the ranks of its students. The fruits of its work are 
to be seen in the increased enterprise and vigor of the church, and in 
the advanced stand it is taking among other denominations in the State. 

This institution has taken the halter of cheap scholarships in 
its very worst form. There is but one redeeming feature in the 
Trinity scholarships, and that is that there are not very many of 
them. The fewer the better. 



Chapter XLVL] OTHER SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES. 555 



CHAPTER XLVI 



OTHER SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES. 

Whoever would effectually serve the interests of religion must befriend the 
cause of education. — 6". G. Burney, D.D. 

THE four leading institutions of learning whose history is 
sketched in the last two chapters are not the only schools 
that have grown up under the patronage of the Cumberland Pres- 
byterian church. Though this church had its origin among the 
pioneer settlers of Kentucky and Tennessee, far from literary 
and commercial centers; though its first members were hardy and 
simple-hearted backwoodsmen, who gave more attention to the 
felling of forest trees and the opening of farms in the wilderness 
than to books; though the scholastic training of many of its first 
preachers did not meet the requirements of the rigid Presbyterian 
rule; yet its ministers and people have ever been the friends and 
promoters of liberal education. 

We have seen how efforts to establish schools were joined to 
the evangelistic and pastoral labors of our first missionaries in 
Pennsylvania and Ohio. The same thing was true wherever Cum- 
berland Presbyterian congregations grew up. In Indiana and Illi- 
nois, in Missouri and Arkansas, as well as in Kentucky, Tennessee, 
and Texas, our people were pioneers in the work of establishing 
schools. Cherry Grove Seminary, near Abingdon, Knox County, 
Illinois, a Cumberland Presbyterian institution, opened its doors to 
students in 1842, but a little while after the Congregationalists 
from New England laid the foundations of Knox College in the 
same county. Spring River Academy was doubtless the first high 
school ever opened in south-western Missouri. It was founded by 
Ozark Presbytery, and went into operation under the superintend- 
ence of the Rev. J. B. Logan, in November, 1844. Delany Acad- 
emy flourished at Newburgh, in southern Indiana, before any other 



556 Cumberland Presbyterian History, [Period vi. 

school of similar grade had been established in that part of the 
State. Such pioneer institutions sprang up wherever our people 
gained a foothold. 

It is true that many of these pioneer schools had but an ephem- 
eral career. The methods and policy adopted were not always the 
wisest. Many of our people did not have a very correct under- 
standing of what was needed in the founding of an institution of 
learning. But the history of these efforts shows that the first Cum- 
berland Presbyterians did not lack the spirit of education. The 
report prepared in 1855 by the Rev. S. G. Burney, chairman of the 
Committee on Education, and adopted by the General Assembly, 
declares that: 

The founders and early friends of the Cumberland Presbyterian 
church were disinherited of their church patrimony, and deprived of 
the benefits of those literary institutions which they and their ancestry, 
by their money and prayers, had contributed to establish. These tem- 
ples of knowledge were closed against them, and against their sons and 
successors in the ministry. It is not, therefore, strange that they were 
not profoundly learned in this world's wisdom. The wonder is, rather, 
that they were learned at all. What is now considered a demonstra- 
tion of an increased educational interest, or "waking up," is only the 
development of a spirit which has always existed. . . . The fact is, and 
probably will not be questioned by any who have inquired into the 
subject, that the Cumberland Presbyterian church has not only taken 
the initiative, but has actually accomplished more for the cause of edu- 
cation in the great valley of the West than any other association what- 
ever, in proportion to numbers and resources. 

We have had schools which flourished for a while under the 
name of colleges, but which never had any endowment, and have 
long ago ceased to exist. Some of these were supplied with such 
meager facilities as to make their pretentious titles most inappro- 
priate. But while we should protest against calling every little 
school a college, we are not to forget that even one or two earnest 
teachers in a log-cabin may do a valuable work. Every one of 
these schools, however meager its resources or brief its career, 
doubtless wrought out some good results. The report on educa- 
tion adopted by the General Assembly of 1871, and signed by Dr. 
Richard Beard, chairman of the committee, contains these words: 



Chapter XLVI.] OTHER SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES. 557 

This church commenced, in its ecclesiastical capacity, the work of 
education in 1826. It has had reverses and disappointments; still much 
has been done. . . . The great want with us in this work has been to 
give a practical direction to our efforts. We have not had the experi- 
ence of ages to guide us. We have not had foundations laid by prede- 
cessors upon which we could build. We have had to work out our 
own experience; we have been compelled to lay our own foundations. 
The wonder is that we have succeeded so well. 

If the church could grasp the true theory of graded schools and 
thorough preparatory academies, and would build them wherever 
needed, and refrain from assuming for them the titles and preroga- 
tives of colleges, and make each grade tributary to the next higher, 
all parts of the church would reap immense advantages from such 
a policy. But if every little town starts its academy, and every 
academy tries to teach college classes, then we shall never have 
either college or university. Neither shall we ever have any acad- 
emies of high reputation. Show me the academy with mixed 
studies that can stand beside the Phillips Academy, or the Bing- 
ham, or the Philadelphia High-school. 

The Minutes of the General Assembly show not only that our 
people have always been enlisted with great earnestness in the 
work of education, but also that, more than forty years ago, the 
importance of concentrating the efforts of the church on a few 
leading institutions, and of building up a graded system of prepar- 
atory schools, was recognized and insisted on by our most thought- 
ful men. Robert Donnell was chairman of the Committee on Edu- 
cation iii 1845. The report which he presented to the General 
Assembly, and which was adopted, declares that it would "greatly 
enhance the prosperity of the higher institutions . . . under the 
auspices of the denomination to encourage inferior schools through- 
out the bounds of the church ;" and recommends "to the presby- 
teries, ministers, and all members of the church," a school system 
which was to embrace: "First, schools in the bounds of every con- 
gregation; second, a presbyterial school in the bounds of every 
presbytery. These," continues the report, "crowned by the uni- 
versity at Lebanon, and the colleges at Princeton, Beverly, and 
Uniontown, would constitute a system of education worthy of the 



558 Cumberland Presbyterian . History. [Period vi. 

best efforts of the church." In the establishment of congrega- 
tional schools our people were advised to co-operate with other 
Christians. It was recommended that "every congregation and 
every session should struggle to keep up a school in its bounds at 
all events; should strive to arouse others to co-operate, but main- 
tain a school under any circumstances." It was suggested, also, 
that the presbyterial schools might in this way set up an advanced 
standard of education, "thus, better than by any other method, 
qualifying the students to enter the university and colleges. ' ' 

The necessity of adopting this graded system of schools was for 
several years urged by the successive General Assemblies. From 
the Minutes we learn that, in 1846, "numerous congregational, 
presbyterial, and synodical schools" had been planted and were 
enjoying a high degree of prosperity. 

In 1847 the most gratifying progress of the educational work 
under the auspices of the church was reported. In 1848 the report 
of the Committee on Education, of which Dr. F. R. Cossitt was 
chairman, contained these words: 

We are gratified to find the cause of education winning the favor 
and enlisting the efforts of your people almost throughout your bounds. 
Various and valuable improvements have been made in the institutions 
heretofore existing, and several new seminaries have been put in oper- 
ation, and there is cheering evidence to believe that the time is not dis- 
tant when the recommendation of a former General Assembly will be 
carried out, and every congregation will sustain its school, and every 
presbytery and synod its seminary. These preparatoy schools, acting in 
their vocation of fitting students for college and university, will become 
so many tributary streams supplying the fountains. There can be but 
little doubt that the system of education heretofore so wisely recom- 
mended, and now being in many parts efficiently conducted, will greatly 
advance the interests of the church. 

In 1849 the recommendation favoring congregational and pres- 
byterial preparatory schools was approved and renewed by the Gen- 
eral Assembly. The report, which was presented by Milton Bird, 
chairman of the Committee on Education, says: 

We must be faithful to this cause. ... Its importance is such as 
requires us to be more determined, vigorous, and consecrated in our 
efforts than ever, in order that it may be increasingly advanced by the 



Chapter XLVI.j OTHER SCHOOLS AND COLXKGES. 559 

upbuilding of our seminaries, the enlarged endowment of our colleges, 
and the constant augmentation of the number of our students. 

But in spite of the wise recommendations of the General As- 
sembly, new colleges, as well as new academies and high schools, 
soon began to announce themselves. In 1851 the names of three 
colleges not mentioned before appear in the General Assembly's 
Minutes; in 1853, three others, one of them a college for young 
ladies, were added to the list; in 1854, two others, one for young 
ladies exclusively; in 1855, two more colleges were announced; in 
1856, one more; in 1858, one; in 1859, three; and in i860, two. 
As early as 1851 the General Assembly began to protest against 
this tendency to multiply schools with collegiate pretensions. The 
report adopted that year says: 

We suggest the necessity of much prudence and caution, lest in the 
eagerness to build up colleges the church squander its means, paralyze 
its energies, and ultimately fail of raising its institutions to the high 
standard desired. To build a college worthy of the name is the result 
of years of patient endurance and unremitting energy, requiring the 
concentration of means and of effort. ... If such an enterprise, when 
fairly undertaken, fails to succeed, such failure, besides proving disas- 
trous to those immediately concerned, involves the reputation of the 
church under whose auspices it was commenced. 

In 1855 the General Assembly declared that "one college in 
each State, judiciously located and well endowed, with primary 
and preparatory schools so placed as to meet the local interests of 
the church," was fully commensurate with the needs of the de- 
nomination. In 1856 the report of the Committee on Education, 
adopted by the General Assembly, after commending the "zeal 
shown in the upbuilding of institutions of learning," adds these 
words: 

Yet your committee would respectfully suggest that you commend 
again . . . sound discretion, lest by the multiplication of the places of 
learning the force of a general educational effort be distracted, and insti- 
tutions already established be left to be impoverished and paralyzed, to 
pine and perish. Reason and sound policy seem most clearly to indi- 
cate that it would be the better plan to cluster around our older seats 
of learning, and cause them, by our patronage and money, fully to meet 
the wants of the church. 



560 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

In 1859 the General Assembly again warned onr people against 
the danger of attempting to build up too many schools, declaring 
that " it is better to encourage co-operative efforts on the part of our 
congregations, presbyteries, and synods to establish a few church 
institutions of the highest order, than to divide means and influence 
in efforts to establish a large number of small church schools." 

We learn from the General Assembly's Minutes that there were, 
in 1849, " sixteen chartered institutions belonging to the church, 
together with a number of other male and female high schools 
under the patronage of, and partly belonging to, the Cumberland 
Presbyterian church." In 1856, the report on education, adopted 
by the Assembly, says: "There are now under the control of the 
Cumberland Presbyterian church, in whole or in part, and all fully 
subserving its educational interests, about thirty institutions of 
learning of high order. Invested in these we find a capital of 
some $331,725; employed in the same seventy-eight teachers, and 
under a course of training two thousand four hundred and fifty 
pupils. ' ' The next year ' ( thirty-six or more institutions of learn- 
ing of high order" were reported, in which there were "about six 
thousand pupils, taught by one hundred and twelve professors." 

In i860 the names of twenty -nine schools and colleges were 
reported to the General Assembly. The list included "one univer- 
sity, fifteen colleges, and thirteen academies, institutes, and semi- 
naries," and the report says that there were "various other high 
schools, taught and patronized by members of our church, yet not 
controlled by any ecclesiastical body. * ' The names of the colleges 
reported at that time, not including Cumberland University, were: 
Waynesburg College, Waynesburg, Pennsylvania; Beverly College, 
Beverly, Ohio; Ewing and Jefferson College, Blount County, Ten- 
nessee; Princeton College, Princeton, Kentucky; Bethel College, 
Mclvemoresville, Tennessee; Chapel Hill College, Dangerfield, 
Texas; Missouri Female College, Boonville, -Missouri; L,arissa 
College, Larissa, Texas; Cane Hill College, Washington County, 
Arkansas; McGee College, College Mound, Missouri; Columbia 
College, Bugene City, Oregon; Union College, Virginia, Illinois; 
Union Female College, Oxford, Mississippi; Cumberland Female 
College, McMinnville, Tennessee; Bacon College, Texas. 



Chapter XLVI.] OTHER SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES. 561 

Chapel Hill College, Missouri, was for some reason omitted from 
this list. This school is mentioned in the Assembly's Minutes for 
1849 as a chartered institution with several professors. In 1851 it 
reported one hundred and forty students and nine thousand dollars 
endowment. It was under the care of Missouri Synod, and the 
Rev. Robert D. Morrow was its president in 1853. * n x 854 it re- 
ported two professors and forty students. In 1855 it had "good 
college buildings free from debt, four instructors, and one hundred 
students." It doubtless did a good work in its day, but the details 
of its history have not been obtained. 

Of the fifteen institutions enumerated in the foregoing list, 
Waynesburg College was probably the only one which continued 
its work without interruption during the civil war; but four of 
the others still exist as Cumberland Presbyterian schools, viz.: 
Bethel College, Cane Hill College, Union Female College, and the 
Cumberland Female College. Efforts were made after the war to 
revive several of the others; and some of them in these latest strug- 
gles, before becoming finally inoperative, did valuable work. To 
give any thing like a full history of all of our dead schools and col- 
leges would require a volume. Therefore a brief sketch of three 
of the number, one a co-educational college and two seminaries for 
young ladies, is all that is here attempted. 

McGEE COLLEGE. 

Among the Cumberland Presbyterian schools which accom- 
plished an important work, and then, for lack of endowment, 
ceased to exist, McGee College, College Mound, Macon County, 
Missouri, was one of the most useful. It was first known as 
McGee Seminary, and was under the care of McGee Presbytery, 
but was afterward transferred to McAdow Synod. In the spring of 
1853 it reported seventy students. James Blewett, A.B., was then 
principal. It was opened as a college in October, 1853, and the 
Rev. J. B. Mitchell became its president. For many long years he 
and his faithful co-workers toiled here under immense difficulties 
to train up consecrated workers for the church. In 1859 the faculty 
was composed of eight members, and the school had two hundred 
and three students, seventy of whom were females. 
36 



562 



Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 



The work of this institution was suspended during the civil 
war. With the beginning of the year 1866 its doors were re- 
opened for the reception of students. In 1867 a full faculty was 
elected, and Dr. Mitchell resumed his work as president. For 
seven years this college continued to do a valuable work. In 1869 
it was reported as " enjoying a larger prosperity than at any former 
date." In 1872 it had two hundred and seventy-three students, 
twenty-nine of whom were preparing for the ministry. 

The following list of prominent teachers in this institution is 
furnished by Dr. Mitchell: 



NAMES. 


PROFESSORSHIP. 


DATE. 


.7 B Mitchell T).T> 




1853tolS74. 


J H Blewett, A.B... 




1853 to 1855. 






1853 to 1856. 


S M. Weedin, A.M 




1854 to 1856. 


G S Howard A B . 




1856 to 1861. 


A B Starke A M 




1857 to 1861. 






1S58 to 1861. 


J M Howard A.B .. 




1866 to 1867. 


J N Campbell 




1866 to 1867. 


B E Guthrie, A.M 




1867 to 1874. 


J S Howard, A.M 




1S67 to 1874. 


W J. Patton, A.B 




1867 to 1874. 


U Vuielle A B. 




1868 to 1874. 


F T Sheetz, A M 




1871 to • 


J T Mitchell A B.. 




1872 to 1874. 


Miss S J. MoCord, B.S 




1873 to 1874. 


Miss M. T. Henderson, B.A 


English Literature 


1873 to 1874. 



This institution had a revival of religion among its students 
almost every year. After the war it had a system of free boarding 
for candidates for the ministry, differing somewhat from the Camp 
Blake plan at Cumberland University. The details are thus given 
in the catalogue for 1869: 

The trustees of the college furnish rooms and stoves therein to all 
known to be preparing for the ministry in the Cumberland Presbyte- 
rian church. Their meals are furnished by families at reasonable rates. 
The presbyteries sending probationers meet this expense, either by for- 
warding the money, or by furnishing supplies at cash rates. A com- 
mittee here receive these funds or supplies, and appropriate them as 
directed, free of charge. 

This institution gave instruction to thousands of pupils who 
have made valuable men and women, filling positions of honor 
and usefulness in church and State, and in the different callings 
and professions. Among those who, from first to last, attended its 
classes were more than one hundred and thirty young men prepar- 



Chapter XLVI.] OTHER SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES. 563 

ing for the ministry in the different Christian denominations. Not 
less than fifty- three of these are still actively preaching the gospel, 
while several others have died in the service. Some of the best 
preachers in our own denomination received their literary training 
wholly or in part in this school. Among these are the Rev. J. S. 
Howard, of Hernando, Mississippi, for many years President of 
Union Female College, Oxford, Mississippi; the Rev. D. E. Bush- 
nell, D.D., of Waynesburg, Pennsylvania; the Rev. W. O. H. Perry, 
President of Odessa College, Missouri; the Rev. H. R. Crockett, of 
Bethany, Illinois; the Rev. J. E. Sharp, of Marshall, Missouri; the 
Rev. W. B. Farr, D.D., Ph.D., of Westport, Missouri; the Rev. A. 
D. Hail, missionary to Japan; the Rev. S. H. McElvain, Fort Smith, 
Arkansas; the Rev. A. L. Barr, Alton, Illinois; the Rev. B. P. Ful- 
lerton, of Kansas City, Missouri; and many others. The work of 
McGee College as a Cumberland Presbyterian school finally ended 
in June, 1874. 

GREENVILLE SEMINARY FOR YOUNG LADIES. 

This school was located at Greenville, Kentucky, and was under 
the care of Green River Synod. It had property worth forty thou- 
sand dollars and in 1858 was in successful operation, with a full 
corps of teachers, and with good prospects of increasing usefulness. 
Under several able men its work was carried on for many years. 
The financial management and support of the school were con- 
nected with a joint stock company. . Complications arose, and the 
school was transferred to an individual, and finally, in 1879, un der 
circumstances which fully justified this course, it was transferred 
by him to a member of the Methodist church. 

GREENWOOD SEMINARY. 
This was a school for young ladies, and was founded by N. 
Lawrence Lindsley, LL.D., after he resigned his professorship in 
Cumberland University. He located his school in the midst of his 
fine estates near Lebanon, Tennessee, and conducted it from the 
first on a unique plan. The number of young ladies was limited 
to just sixteen, and no one was ever received without a thorough 
previous investigation. The pupils were as thoroughly cut off 
from outside associations as it was possible for them to be. Dr. 



564 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

Lindsley and his assistants had the whole training of these pupils 
in their own hands. The largest private library in Tennessee was 
that of Dr. Lindsley. His correspondence with literary gentlemen 
both in America and Europe was also extensive. His death and 
that of his wife put an end to Greenwood Seminary. 

Four colleges have already been named which, after suspending 
their work during the civil war, were revived and continue still in 
operation. A brief sketch of each of these will be in place here: 

UNION FEMALE COLLEGE. 

The incipient steps toward the founding of this institution were 
taken by Hernando Synod in 1851. The synods of Mississippi and 
Union, and afterward, in 1853, the synod of West Tennessee joined 
in this undertaking, and commissioners were appointed to decide 
upon a location for the new college. This combination was the 
result of a proposition from Bethel College that these four synods 
should enter into an agreement to co-operate in establishing two 
schools: Bethel College for young men, and a college for young 
ladies. A school known as Oxford Female Academy, controlled 
by a local board of trustees, had been chartered at Oxford, Missis- 
sippi, in 1838. The Rev. S. G. Burney, D.D., was elected princi- 
pal of this school in 1852, and still held this position when the 
synodical commissioners met in 1853. The property belonging to 
this academy and other valuable donations by the citizens of Ox- 
ford were tendered to the new college on condition that it should 
be located at that town. The commissioners accepted this propo- 
sition, and the college was opened in the fall of 1853 with Dr. Bur- 
ney as president. The institution received its new charter as Union 
Female College, February 4, 1854. In 1856, at a cost of twenty- 
five thousand dollars, a new brick building fifty by one hundred 
feet, and three stories high, was added to the old one, a two-story 
brick thirty feet square. With its enlarged field this institution 
became one of the educational powers of Mississippi, and, before 
the war, was making some progress in securing endowment. Dr. 
Burney resigned in 1859 or i860, and was succeeded by the Rev. 
R. S. Thomas, D.D., who continued in charge of the institution 
until its work was suspended by the war. 



Chapter XLVI.j OTHER SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES. 565 

The school was not re-opened until the autumn of 1865, when 
the Rev. C. H. Bell, D. D. , was elected president. The institution 
rapidly regained its former prosperity, but owing to the prostration 
of Southern finances, no effort was made to renew the work of 
soliciting endowment. It is high time that this work was resumed 
and pushed to a happy completion. From the catalogue of 1870 
we learn that "This institution is held by a board of trustees, 
under a charter from the State, for the benefit of the public, and 
is authorized to confer the highest educational honors. The prop- 
erty is supposed to be worth about thirty-five thousand dollars. ' ' 

In 1873 Dr. Bell resigned the presidency, and was succeeded by 
R. J. Guthrie, A. M. , who continued in charge of the school two 
years. His successor, the Rev. J. S. Howard, A.M., entered upon 
his duties as president in 1875, and served for twelve years, resign- 
ing June, 1887, W. I. Davis, A.M., succeeded him, and is still iii 
charge. Two hundred and twenty-seven young ladies have gradu- 
ated from this college, and more than one thousand others have 
here received their education. This institution has struggled with 
the usual difficulties incident to unendowed schools, and has at 
times been much involved in debt, but it is now entirely free from 
incumbrance, and in a better condition financially and otherwise 
than at any time in its past history. It is now owned and con- 
trolled by the synod of Mississippi. 

CUMBERLAND FEMALE COLLEGE. 

This institution was located at McMinnville, Tennessee, in 1850, 
and is now under control of Middle Tennessee Synod. Good build- 
ings and handsome grounds, free from debt, were secured, and the 
first session opened in 1851. Apparatus and library were partially 
provided, but no endowment has ever been furnished. The location 
of this institution is one of the most healthful in the world. Ro- 
mantic scenery adds to its attractions. A strong local support, that 
indispensable requisite, has always been enjoyed by this enterprise. 
No college ever succeeds without vigorous backing in the com- 
munity where it is located. Our church at McMinnville, and our 
churches in the country around the place are strong enough to 
make the college feel their presence. 



566 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

The institution has had five presidents: The Rev. A. M. Stone, 
1851 to 1855; the Rev. J. M. Gill, 1855 to 1857; D. M. Donnell, 
A.M., 1857 to 1871; A. M. Burney, A.M., 1871 to 1880; N. J. 
Finney, A.M., 1880, to the present time (October, 1887). Its high- 
est prosperity has been reached under the present administration. 
Additions to the handsome buildings have been recently made. 
The patronage has always been good, but at no time have its pros- 
pects been brighter than at present. 

President Finney, is one of the very best graduates Cumber- 
land University ever educated. He is an earnest Christian, a ripe 
scholar, an indefatigable worker. 

BETHEL COLLEGE. 

Bethel College was organized in 1851, and has done valuable 
work for the Church. Two interesting and precious facts con- 
nected with the inner life of this institution deserves special men- 
tion. The first is the intense religious interest which has been 
mingled with its educational work. Revivals of great power 
almost every year, bringing the pupils into the army of Christ, 
have been led and fostered by the faculty. As one of these seasons 
for protracted meetings approached, the young Christians in the 
college by mutual agreement each took an unconverted friend or 
comrade with him to secret prayer. Nearly all these comrades 
were led to Christ before the meetings closed. 

The other special feature of the work of Bethel College is con- 
nected with the struggles of young men who had no money. The 
faculty and the surrounding community adopted their own peculiar 
method of encouraging this class of students. Their method was 
not to give the boys money, but to show them how to get along 
with little, and earn that little themselves. Poor students were 
encouraged to live in the "camps" or cabins which had been erected 
on the ground near the college building, where the camp-meetings 
were held. These students did their own cooking; work was given 
them so as to enable them to earn wages while going to college. 
The students who supported themselves in this way, not only stood 
as high in the respect of the community as the wealthiest, but 
often far higher. 



Chapter XLVL] OTHER SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES. 567 

The Rev. J. M. B. Roach roomed in one of these camps, pre- 
paring his own meals, and serving as college janitor. He was hon- 
ored by the college and by the whole community above the very 
wealthiest students, and he deserved it. Though poor he was never 
a beneficiary ; and his brief career after he graduated— alas, so brief! — 
was as heroic and as independent as was his life in Bethel College. 
He was not the only noble graduate of that institution. Its alumni 
in all parts of our denominational field are efficient and honored 
laborers for the Master. This school at first admitted only young 
men and boys to its classes, but is now a co-educational college. 

There is a lesson from the experience of Bethel College about 
concentration. When some good brethren of West Tennessee 
Synod proposed to establish this institution, others opposed it on 
the ground that the church already had in Tennessee one college 
for the education of young men. These objectors were, however, 
outvoted, and the new enterprise was inaugurated. In a short time 
a small fragment of West Tennessee Synod, less than a presbytery, 
opened another school with a collegiate name, right in the field of 
Bethel College, using the very same arguments which had been 
used in favor of establishing that institution. Then the Bethel 
men became eloquent in their pleading for concentration, and sent 
special agents to Hernando and Mississippi Synods to try to dis- 
suade them from a scheme which they were discussing looking 
toward the establishment of a college for young men. The agent 
sent to one of these synods succeeded in effecting an agreement by 
which the matter was compromised, and the founding of the rival 
college prevented. That compromise has continued until the pres- 
ent time, from 1853 to 1887. 

Bethel College had one regular graduate at the end of its first 
collegiate year. There were six in its senior class the second year, 
and in the years following the classes continued to grow. Before 
the war this school had the best telescope to be found in any of our 
colleges. While the great conflict was raging, some soldiers carried 
this instrument off to the camps, believing that they had captured 
a brass cannon! When railroads drew the town, McL,emoresville, 
away from the college, it pulled up stakes and moved to McKenzie, 
Tennessee, where it still continues its work. 



568 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

It is said that the first president of this institution, the Rev. J. 
N. Roach, used to employ the switch as an instrument of discipline, 
not sparing even young men. He was regarded by the trustees as 
a master disciplinarian. But when he used the switch he often 
took the pupil with him into the woods, where he would pray with 
him awhile, and then whip awhile. After whipping and praying 
had alternated in one case for some time, he appealed to the stu- 
dent, asking, "What more can I do for you? " The answer was, 
' ' I think you would better pray again. ' ' 

This president practiced the most rigid system of espionage on his 
pupils. Many a night he would be out nearly all night, watching 
to catch the boys in their mischief. He required the professors to 
take night and night about with him in these vigils. Whatever 
may be said against such a method of discipline, it was certainly 
popular in that community. 

The succession of presidents in Bethel has been: the Rev. J. N. 
Roach, A.B., the Rev. C. J. Bradley, the Rev. Azel Freeman, D.D., 
the Rev. Felix Johnson, D.D., the Rev. B. W. McDonnold, D.D., 
the Rev. J. S. Howard, A.M., the Rev. W. W. Hendrix, D.D., W. 
B. Sherrill, A.M., the Rev. J. L. Dickens, A.M. This institution 
now has two hundred and thirty students enrolled; sixteen of these 
are preparing to enter the ministry. 

CANE HILL COLLEGE. 

As has been seen in a former chapter, efforts to establish an 
institution of learning on Cane Hill, Arkansas, were begun by our 
people as early as 1834. As there were then no State schools, 
all educational enterprises were carried on by personal effort. The 
influence of several private schools, conducted by teachers of good 
attainments, gave impetus to the educational spirit already among 
the people. They thought that they must have a college. Like 
many others, they supposed that a building a little better than the 
ordinary school-house, with two or three educated teachers, would 
constitute a college. Accordingly a brick house was built, and iu 
1852 a charter was secured from the legislature, and Cane Hill Col- 
lege was opened at Boonsboro, Washington County, Arkansas. 

This school was put under the care of the Arkansas Synod, and 






Chapter XLVI.] OTHER SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES. 569 

the Rev. Robert M. King, of Missouri, was elected president. He 
was assisted by Prof. S. Doak Lowry. After laboring efficiently for 
several years, Mr. King resigned, and moved back to Missouri. 
Professor Lowry was then in charge of trie school, and was assisted 
by Prof. James H. Crawford and Prof. Pleasant W. Buchanan. An 
effort was made to raise endowment by scholarships, and the Rev. 
W. G. L,. Quaite was appointed endowing agent. He secured in 
donation notes and scholarship pledges several thousand dollars, 
but the wreck and ruin wrought by the war, which soon followed, 
rendered all these utterly valueless. 

Before the war a new building, worth about six thousand dol- 
lars, was erected. In March, 1859, the ^ ev - F. R. Earle, of Green- 
ville, Kentucky, accepted the presidency, and was formally inau- 
gurated in the following June. He found the college in good 
working order. At the close of the collegiate year, in June, 1859, 
two young men, S. H. Buchanan and J. T. Buchanan, were regu- 
larly graduated, receiving the first diplomas ever issued by the 
college. At that time, also, the first catalogue was issued. S. H. 
Buchanan was employed as tutor for the next session. In June, 
i860, Prof. Lowry resigned. The Rev. W. P. Gillespie was after- 
ward elected to fill the vacancy. The school prospered until 1861. 
Then came the war, by which its work was suspended. The col- 
lege buildings, with a valuable little library, and some apparatus, 
were completely destroyed by fire in November, 1864. 

One house belonging to the college, and formerly used as a 
boarding-house for young preachers, escaped the flames. After the 
war closed the president returned, and began to teach and preach in 
this building. In 1868 a new frame building, worth about five 
thousand dollars, was erected on the old foundation, and in Septem- 
ber the president, assisted by Prof. James Mitchell, opened school 
in this new house. In September, 1869., Prof. J. P. Carnahan was 
added to the teaching force. In 1874 Prof. Mitchell retired, and 
accepted a more lucrative position in the State University. Prof. 
Harold Bourland was employed to fill the vacancy. He remained, 
however, for only one session. 

In 1875 the trustees resolved to admit pupils of both sexes and 
the Rev. H. M. Welch was chosen as principal of the department for 



570 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

young ladies. In 1879 Prof. Welch retired. In the four years fol- 
lowing, Mrs. Earle, Miss Welch, Miss Moore, and Mrs. Whittenberg 
were employed as teachers whenever the patronage demanded it. 

In 1883 Prof. Carnahan retired, having taught fourteen years. 
The president then had entire control of the work until 1885^ 
when he, too, resigned, and the Rev. J. P. Russell was called to 
take charge. He taught two terms and a half. In the second ses- 
sion of his administration the college building was burned. In this 
emergency the Methodists of the village generously tendered the use 
of their church, and this, with a small dwelling-house rented for 
the occasion, furnished room for the school, and the work went on. 

After the resignation of Mr. Russell, Dr. Earle again undertook 
the labors and responsibilities of the work.. In 1886 a new build- 
ing on a new foundation was erected. This is better than either 
of the former buildings. In 1887, the president, assisted by two 
good teachers, opened school in the new building, with a good pat- 
ronage and a fair promise of success. Excepting the two and a 
half sessions taught by Mr. Russell, and the vacation enforced by 
the civil war, President Earle has been in charge of the school from 
March, 1859, until the present time. In all that time he has been 
the only pastor of the congregation worshiping in the college chapel. 
Within this period thirty-four young men and young women have 
graduated. Of these all but three are living, and are doing good 
work, several of them as ministers. A large number of students 
who did not finish the college course have gone forth from this school 
to their life work. The institution still lives. It has property worth 
at least eight thousand dollars. It is situated, however, right under 
the shadow of a heavily-endowed State university, which furnishes 
practically free tuition, and therefore labors at a disadvantage. 

The limits of this volume will not permit the introduction here 
of the history of all the schools founded by Cumberland Presbyte- 
rians since the close of the war, and now doing a good work. A 
brief notice of thjee or four of them is all that can be attempted. 

WARD'S SEMINARY, NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE. 

This school was founded by W. E. Ward, D.D., in 1865, who 
began the work when the country round him was still covered with 



Chapter XLVL] OTHER SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES. 57 1 

the ruins the war had made. He had visited all the principal col- 
leges for young ladies in America, thoroughly acquainting himself 
with modern methods. He made a brave beginning, and soon 
attained the highest rank as an educator. A long- tried son of the 
church, and giving the most liberal advantages to the daughters of 
its ministers, he commanded the hearty co-operation of our people 
in this private enterprise. From the first the school took high 
rank, and still maintains it. Over two hundred teachers have 
received their education at this institution. While laboring in this 
school, and securing its great success, Dr. Ward has been alive to 
the best interests of the church, taking an active part for over 
fifteen years as a member of our Board of Publication, as well as 
in the building up of our church in Nashville. The seminary is 
now in the prime of its career, and no doubt will go on to a greater 
success. It teaches one valuable lesson — that great enterprises 
must have time and patience, and a head to work out, through 
long years, the consummation they set out to make. The first 
year this school had one hundred and eight pupils. The patronage 
steadily increased, until iu 1883 the number enrolled was three 
hundred and fifty-four. Its largest graduating class, that of 18S4- 
1885, numbered fifty-six. The total number of graduates sent 
forth by this school up to 1887 was eight hundred and eighty. 1 

SPRING HILL INSTITUTE. 

This school was founded by the Rev. J. L. Cooper, just after 
the war. It is located in Kemper County, Mississippi. Though 
private property it is regarded as one of our very useful institutions. 
Without any high pretensions, it goes steadily and earnestly on in 
its work of usefulness. The aim of Mr. Cooper was to establish 
an institution according to his own ideas, and place it out of the 
reach of contaminating influences. In carrying out his plan he 



1 Since this sketch was written, Dr. Ward has passed from his earthly toil to his 
reward. In the summer of 1887 he sought relief from severe illness, caused by over- 
work, in a voyage to Europe. After his arrival in England he grew worse and sailed 
for home, but died on shipboard in mid-ocean. July 20th, 1887. His death brought 
sorrow to the hearts of his pupils and his brethren throughout the church, and at 
Nashville was mourned as a public calamity. The school he founded continues its 
work with undimished success. 



572 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

followed the example of N. Lawrence Iyindsley, LJv.D., of Green- 
wood Seminary, and placed his academy in the center of his own 
large area of land, so that he could control every lot and every set- 
tlement upon the premises. He has carried forward this enterprise 
successfully. His corps of teachers is always full, and the patron- 
age of the school always about equal to the number it is able to 
accommodate. Of the results of co-education, after a pretty thor- 
ough test, Mr. Cooper speaks thus: 

We have tried our plan of a male and female school for three years, 
and success has crowned our efforts thus far. Here brothers and sisters 
meet in the same chapel at roll-call and at prayers, after which the sister 
takes her seat in the study hall, and the brother retires to his boarding 
room. When the bell calls them to recitation, they again meet and 
recite to the same teachers; and, thus, all the stimulants to neatness of 
dress, puiity of language, ease of manner and address, and high intel- 
lectual endeavor, growing out of contact with the other sex under 
wholesome restraints are secured. By having separate boarding-houses, 
and by holding the reins of government firmly, yet kindly, we find the 
school much more easily controlled than either a male or female school 
separate. 

Several of our best living ministers were educated mainly at 
Spring Hill; some of them in the same classes with their wives, 
for married preachers are still thronging all our schools. 

LOUDON HIGH SCHOOL. 

Though it has only a modest name, this institution teaches a 
full college course. It was established by Bast Tennessee Synod, 
in 1869, at Loudon, Tennessee. It has had a very respectable fac- 
ulty of real scholars. It has aimed to secure endowment, but its 
field is too circumscribed 'to give large hopes of success. Amid 
beautiful scenery, with historic surroundings, in ample buildings, 
the school presents a most fascinating exterior. Of its inner life 
the writer has no information. 

EDUCATIONAL WORK IN MISSOURI. 

The church in Missouri suffered a great loss by the closing of 
McGee College, in 1874. But our people did not become dispirited. 
It was decided to resume educational work and to profit by the dis- 
asters of the past. Several valuable schools had been lost by the 



Chapter XLVL] OTHER SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES. 573 

want of permanent endowment, hence the synods of the State 
agreed to co-operate in raising one hundred thousand dollars as a 
permanent endowment fund, and not to open another college until 
that amount should be secured, this being considered a safe nucleus. 
The work of securing money has been going steadily forward for 
several years, and at this time it is believed that the one hundred 
thousand dollars has been fully provided for by the educational 
commission of the co-operating synods. The contemplated insti- 
tution will, therefore, no doubt be founded in the near future. 

Notwithstanding this action of the synods looking toward the 
founding of one central college for Missouri, several schools, con- 
trolled mainly or entirely by Cumberland Presbyterians, have been 
kept in operation in the State. Stewartsville Seminary, a private 
enterprise, under the charge of the Rev. W. O. H. Perry, had since 
1863 been doing a good work. In 1879 it was chartered as Stew- 
artsville College, and in the years following it sent forth about 
twenty graduates. On account of the loss of its buildings by fire, 
its work was, in 1887, brought to an end. Prof. Perry has recently 
taken charge of Odessa College, a school established by the citizens 
of Odessa, Missouri. Ozark College, at Greenfield, in the south- 
western part of the State, belongs to Ozark Presbytery, and has 
grown into an institution of considerable importance. The Rev. 
A. J. McGlumphy, D.D., LL.D., formerly president of Lincoln 
University, Illinois, has recently taken charge of this school. 

CHEAP SCHOLARSHIPS. 

As so many of our colleges have committed themselves to 
cheap scholarships, and as circumstances in the past compelled the 
writer of this history to make an exhaustive investigation of all 
the questions connected with this plan for securing endowment, it 
may not be improper to give some of the general conclusions 
reached in that investigation. 

The scholarship plan strikes a fatal blow at the only depend- 
ence any unendowed college has for support. Tuition fees may 
keep up a faculty for a little season, but for an unendowed college 
to adopt a scheme which reduces or destroys tuition fees is suicidal. 
The scheme of limited scholarships aims at endowing the college 



574 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

by defrauding three generations of teachers. "If we can only 
struggle through the limited period, then we will have a safe 
endowment." Yes, if — but O what a long and fraudulent if it is! 
" If we can only find professors to teach for us without adequate pay 
for a few years, then all the scholarships will have expired, and we 
shall have a safely invested endowment." As respectable and 
competent professors can not be secured without pay, the few 
years must be struggled through with such teachers as will work 
on less than one fourth an adequate salary. In some cases, long 
before the limited period expires the institution dies. In other 
cases the trustees save its life by a breach of trust — using the prin- 
cipal of these scholarships to retain the faculty. In still other 
cases the principal is so reduced by agent's fees, losses on invest- 
ments, and other processes, that the institution finds itself bound 
to teach, without pay and without endowment, as many students 
as are likely ever to seek instruction within its walls. It then 
repudiates its scholarships, having no alternative left. By this 
process so many of the real friends of the institution are alienated 
that all prospects for real endowment are sadly diminished. Even 
the voluntary surrender of these scholarships, in view of obvious 
necessities, lessens the prospects of securing real endowment after- 
ward. 

In well-known cases a large number of scholarship claims have 
been bought up at low rates by trustees residing near the college. 
Though the original form of these scholarships did not allow them 
to be rented, yet these trustees, being the law makers of the insti- 
tution, and having now a private interest to serve, have met to- 
gether and enlarged the privileges of these claims so that they 
could be rented for a session at a time. Then these trustees, being 
on the ground, have underbid the faculty for the patronage of 
such students as would have paid the highest tuition! 

The scholarship scheme appeals to wrong motives. It goes to 
men with offers and inducements of a financial character. They 
are asked to make an investment of money with an eye to future 
profits, not as a gift to the blessed Lord. All the high motives 
which influence earnest Christians to liberality and self-sacrifice — 
love for church and the ministry, love for the Master and the souls 



Chapter XLYL] OTHER SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES. 575 

for whom he died — are sunk into the low, sordid hope of making 
a profitable investment of a few hundred dollars. No Abbot Law- 
rence will ever be developed among us by these sordid appeals. 
To the mistaken schemes for securing endowment by cheap schol- 
arships is it chiefly due that no very large donations have ever been 
made by any one man to any of our colleges. 

Let two agents start side by side, one to work for a college 
which never appeals to sordid motives, which asks only for unin- 
cumbered endowment, and the other for an institution which has 
adopted the plan of cheap scholarships; and, other things being 
equal, the former will secure far more money than the latter. The 
difference will grow immeasurably great if the former agent repre- 
sents a college which is out-and-out and forever all for Jesus, and 
justly bases all its appeals for help on love to Christ's kingdom; 
while the other represents men, corporations, or towns, which have 
private axes to grind while pretending to ask assistance in the 
name of the sacred cause of religion. 

The church educates its members by the methods it adopts. 
The agents whom it sends forth to solicit money are educators. 
Under those perverted methods employed in securing endowment 
funds through scholarships, and by kindred schemes for raising 
money for missions, or to sustain the work in our congregations, 
we have encouraged a species of giving which is in many cases a 
sham and a cheat. There are those who think themselves the 
most devoted Christians on earth, who have not learned the first 
lesson in consecration and self-denial. 

The scholarship evil is but one of the many substitutes which 
men are prone to adopt instead of the divine plan of raising money 
for the Master's kingdom. Some of these substitutes might be in- 
nocent enough in themselves if they were not used to crowd out 
God's own appointed method of training a church to give system- 
atically and from principle. 

Is there no supreme love to Christ? Is there no heart so full 
of devotion to him that its utmost possible gift would be gladly 
bestowed, and which weeps bitter tears because it has no more to 
offer? Once an agent of one of our colleges was accosted by the 
wife of a wealthy man. Her husband was not a Christian, and 



576 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

though he controlled vast estates, he dealt out money to his wife 
with a sparing hand. When she was alone with the agent she said 
to him: "My heart is nearly breaking because I can not do some- 
thing for my Savior through your institution. I believe that work 
is sacred to my Redeemer, but I have only one thing in the world 
which I am at liberty to give you without asking my husband: 
that is my diamonds. I have a full set that cost a large sum. I 
want the Savior to accept the poor little offering, and use it in 
training men to preach the gospel.' ' That was giving to Jesus. 
u O si sic ornnes" 



Chapter XLVIL] PUBLICATION. 577 



CHAPTER XLVII 



PUBLICATION, NEWSPAPERS, REVISION, AND 
TEMPERANCE. 

For the cause that lacks assistance, 
For the wrongs which need resistance, 
For the future in the distance. 

— Dr. Guthrie. 

FOUR subjects which belong to more than one period of this 
history have been reserved for this special chapter. They are 
Publication, Newspapers, Revision, and Temperance. 

PUBLICATION. 1 

Cumberland Presbyterians manifested very early their apprecia- 
tion of the printing press. The founders of this church, before 
the organization of its first presbytery, sent forth to the world, 
"The Remonstrance of the Council," an "Address to the Christian 
Reader," and probably other short publications. The first official 
document issued by our people was probably the "Circular Letter," 
published in 18 10, by which the church announced and vindicated 
its own existence. Old Cumberland Synod at its first meetino- 
held in October, 1813, at Beech meeting-house, Sumner county, 
Tennessee, appointed a committee to prepare a complete account 
of the rise, history, and doctrines of Cumberland Presbytery, to 
be published in Woodward's third edition of Buck's Theological 
Dictionary. This account was accordingly prepared and published. 

When the synod of 1814 adopted the Confession of Faith, Cate- 
chism, and Discipline, Finis Ewing and Hugh Kirkpatrick agreed 
with the synod to print the book at eighty-seven and one half 
cents per copy, "upon good writing paper, neatly bound and let- 
tered." It is not certain that this contract was ever carried out. 
The Confession was probably not printed until seven years later, 

x This sketch of the publishing work of the church was prepared by J. M. Gaut, 
Esq., President of the Board of Publication. 

37 



578 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

The oldest copy now known to be extant was printed at Russell- 
ville, Kentucky, in 182 1, by Charles Rhea. This was the first book 
ever issued by Cumberland Presbyterians. 

For the first ten or fifteen years of the church's existence, its 
preachers were too intent on bringing sinners to Christ to think of 
ecclesiastical machinery ; but in course of time they began to think 
more of the equipments of the church. The first step looking to- 
ward a publishing department was taken by the synod in 1825. ^ n 
adopting the plan of old Cumberland College, the synod provided 
that the commissioners should be authorized to connect with it, if 
they thought expedient, a printing office, to publish a "periodical 
paper, ' ' books, tracts, etc. This was not deemed expedient how- 
ever. 

The aspirations of the young church seem to have been kin- 
dled in a number of directions about this time. The synod at its 
meeting in 1823 required each presbytery to report its history to 
the synod. All of the twelve presbyteries, except two, complied; 
and these documents were filed with the clerk of the synod, and 
the presbyteries were ordered to continue their reports. In 1824 
the synod appointed a committee to collect materials for a church 
history. In 1825 ^ ma de arrangements for publishing the lectures 
which Finis Bwing had delivered in his school in Missouri. A 
committee was appointed to secure from the records of the Presby- 
terian church the history of the Cumberland Presbyterian preach- 
ers who had been connected with that church. It also appointed a 
committee, consisting of Samuel King, Robert Donnell, and James 
B. Porter, to compile a hymn book. This committee made the 
compilation and by authority published the book, and sold six 
thousand copies ; ultimately, in 1848, the plates of this hymn book, 
with the committee's debts, were transferred to the Board of Pub- 
lication. 

The Assembly of 1845, carrying- out the spirit of resolutions 
adopted in 1843, provided for the committing of its business trans- 
actions to the care of boards. A Board of Publication was created, 
called a "Publishing Association." A constitution was adopted, 
prescribing its powers and duties, and making it a sort of stock com- 
pany. The members of the board were Richard Beard, Milton 



Chapter XLVIL] PUBLICATION. 



579 



Bird, H. A. Hunter, Le Roy Woods, J. F. Wilkins, Wm. Miller, 
James M. Rogers, and Alonzo Livermore. It seems to have been 
a cumbersome piece of machinery ; and was never called together 
even for organization until about two years after its creation, and 
the very day before the Assembly abolished it. .The Assembly of 
1847 appointed a simple Committee of Publication, consisting of 
five members, the Rev. Milton Bird, the Rev. Laban Jones, and 
Ruling Elders T. E. McLean, A. M. Phelps, and James L. Strat- 
ton, and instructed them to procure a charter of incorporation. 
This board located its work at Louisville, Kentucky, where Milton 
Bird lived, and who sooner or later was president, corresponding 
secretary, publishing agent, book editor, and salesman. 

The business of the board was carried on at Louisville, from 
1847 to I ^58- A general statement of its history during this period 
has been given on pages 313-316 of this volume. Only a few de- 
tails will be added. During the years 1848 and 1849, about $2,900 
was donated to it, and the sales amounted to about $1,400. In 
1850 Dr. Bird resigned as publishing agent, and the Rev. Le Roy 
Woods was appointed in his stead. After this the donations 
dropped down to a few hundred dollars per year, and the main de- 
pendence was upon sales. Up to 1853 the total donations were 
reported at $3,129.76, and the assets then amounted to $3,725.62, 
showing an increase of $595. 86. The agent was paid $500 for five 
sixths of his time. The printing was done by contract. Difficulty 
was experienced in getting frequent meetings of the board, a quo- 
rum not living in Louisville. Complaints were made by several 
General Assemblies because the board failed to report fully or 
in due time, and, on one occasion, because it did not report at 
all. A memorial from the Pennsylvania Synod was presented to 
the Assembly of 1850, praying a removal of the "Book Concern " 
to a place farther eastward. The prayer was refused. It is quite 
remarkable that two reports of the board, doubtless written by Dr. 
Bird, announce business principles whose soundness it has required 
years of sad experience to enable our own and other churches to 
appreciate. He condemned the extending of credit and the con- 
tracting of debts. He opposed the fixing of too low prices on the 
books, the clamor to the contrary notwithstanding. He protested 



580 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vl 

against the keeping up of depositories at the risk and expense of 
the board, and favored, instead, agencies conducted by the presby- 
teries or individuals. He opposed changes in the location of the 
board, and recognized the need of a book editor, and the necessity 
of paying for manuscripts. The books then most needed were, in 
his opinion, a treatise on our theology, a church history, biograph- 
ical sketches of our ministers, children's books, and doctrinal and 
practical tracts. 

But all of this good preaching against the credit system was 
followed by some very bad practice on the part of somebody. By 
1854 the board had become largely indebted to its printers, Morton 
& Griswold, Louisville, Kentucky. This debt, according to the 
board's statement, was more than $2,000. There was due on 
sales of books for 1853, $856, and for 1854, $1,042 — about one third 
of the entire amount of the sales. The board became alarmed and 
reduced the salary of the agent, and he resigned. The Rev. Jesse 
Anderson was appointed in his stead. 

The Assembly of 1854 gave some very pointed orders about re- 
porting, and abstaining from the credit system. As measures of 
relief, it recommended the employment of soliciting agents and 
colporteurs, and an inciease in the price of the books. It recom- 
mended further that none but an experienced book-keeper should 
be appointed agent. The board's report for that year is not clear, 
but the Assembly's committee reported the assets at about $4,500, 
and the debts about $2, 500. A committee of three was appointed 
to audit the books of the board. Resignations became frequent 
about this time. The number of the members of the board was 
increased to seven. There was no improvement, however, in the 
financial results, and the Assembly of 1857 passed a resolution to 
wind the business up. Thus ends the first period of the board's 
history. Its assets at this time, as reported to the Assembly of 
1858, amounted to $4,913.88. In this estimate, however, were in- 
cluded notes and accounts due the board, amounting to $2,795.22, 
worth not more than fifty cents on the dollar. The remainder of 
the assets consisted of plates, books, and a small amount of cash. 
The liabilities amounted to $1,189,44. The actual net assets were 
therefore supposed to be about $1,310.00. During that period 



Chapter XLVII.j PUBLICATION. 581 

there had been published about thirty thousand volumes, consist- 
ing largely of hymn books and Confessions of Faith. The sales 
had amounted to about $11,000. The books of the church con- 
sisted of the Hymn Book, Social Harp, Confession of Faith, the 
Manual, E wing's Lectures, Donnell's Thoughts, Guide to Infant 
Baptism, Infant Philosophy, and A Commentary on the Sixth 
Chapter of Hebrews. 

The General Assembly of 1858, which convened at Huntsville, 
Alabama, appointed a special committee on publication, including 
some of its best men. They were Richard Beard, chairman, R. 
Burrow, M. B. Feemster, H. B. Warren, R. L. Caruthers, A. J. 
Baird, Milton Bird, and Isaac Shook. In accordance with the 
recommendations of this committee, a complete re-organization of 
the publishing work of the church took place. A permanent 
( ' Committee of Publication ' ' was provided for, to consist of three 
practical business men, known to be devoted to the interests of the 
church, and "located contiguous to each other." This committee 
was to appoint a general agent, and require him to give bond. It 
was instructed "to adopt all necessary means" to raise money, "by 
subscription or otherwise," to carry forward the work of publica- 
tion. The agent was to be paid a sufficient salary to justify him 
in giving as much time as was necessary for the vigorous prosecu- 
tion of the work. The committee was not to involve itself in debt 
or extend its business beyond the means under its control. The 
members were to be subject to removal by the General Assembly. 
The committee was to have power to fill vacancies in its mem- 
bership, occurring between the meetings of the Assembly, subject 
to the confirmation of the next Assembly. It was instructed to 
secure a charter of incorporation. Its location was to be deter- 
mined by a committee of seven, who were to receive propositions 
from various places with the view of establishing a general book 
depository and store, and ultimately, if the prospects should justify, 
"a house of publication." The men appointed to constitute this 
permanent committee were Elder Andrew Allison, the Rev. W. E. 
Ward, and the Rev. Wiley M. Reed. 

The committee was located at Nashville, Tennessee, and the 
Rev. Wiley M. Reed was chosen its chairman. The Rev. W. S. 



582 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

Ivangdon was appointed general agent. He went to L,ouisville and 
took charge of the assets. All the stereotype plates, except those 
of the catechism were lost in the manner stated on page 315 of this 
history. The assets removed to Nashville consisted of the plates 
of the catechism, books valned at $641, and notes and accounts, 
which, after paying the debts, yielded about $900. In i860 the 
board was chartered by an act of the legislature of Tennessee. 
One thousand dollars was borrowed to publish the hymn book, 
which had been revised by a committee consisting of the Rev. A, 
J. Baird, the Rev. J. C. Provine, and Elder N. Green, Jr. , appointed 
by the Assembly of 1858. The lenders of this money were the 
Hon. Robert L,. Caruthers, Judge N. Green, Sr., the Hon. Horace 
H. Harrison, the Rev. Carson P. Reed, John Frizzell, Esq., and 
others whose names can not now be ascertained. Most of the 
money thus loaned was subsequently donated to the board. E. 
Waterhouse, Sr., donated the money with which the Confession 
of Faith was stereotyped. 

The publishing work of the church was suspended by the war 
till 1863, when it was transferred to Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. Of 
the publishing committee appointed at that place, Joseph Pennock 
was made chairman, and the Rev. S. T. Stewart, the publishing 
agent. The assets, when removed from Nashville, amounted to 
$5,892.25, less debts amounting to $2,254.69. A new committee 
was appointed in 1865, consisting of the Rev. I. N. Cary, the Rev. 
S. T. Stewart, and Alexander Postley. The business was for a time 
under the management of Mr.. Stewart. The printing and selling 
were afterward done on commission by Davis, Clark & Co. , of Pitts- 
burg. This" arrangement was continued until the work was again 
transferred to Nashville. This was done by order of the Assembly 
which met at Memphis, in 1867. The Rev. A. J. Baird, the Rev. 
Iv. C. Ransom, and Ruling Elder D. C. Love, were then appointed 
the members of the board. 

The Assembly had recommended that a book editor and pub- 
lishing agent should be employed, who should be ex officio a mem- 
ber of the board. It also appropriated to the publishing work 
$2,460 from the interest on the Finley Bequest. This, added to 
the assets received from Pittsburg, made the total resources 



Chapter XLVIL] PUBLICATION. 583 

$5,217.74. The Rev. J. C. Provine, D.D., was chosen book editor 
and publishing agent. The receipts from sales during ten months 
were $6,971.24. Although the General Assembly had passed a 
resolution calling the attention of the presbyteries to the necessi- 
ties of the board, and requesting them to have collections taken up 
in the congregations for the cause of publication, yet the donations 
for the entire year amounted to only twenty dollars. The expendi- 
tures for the ten months were just equal to the donations and the 
receipts from sales. The next Assembly re-adopted the "quarterly 
system ' ' of collections. During the following year only thirty -five 
out of twelve hundred congregations took up collections for the 
cause of publication — ten of them in Missouri, and nine in Tennes- 
see, and not exceeding three in any other State. The total dona- 
tions were $391.75. This, with the receipts from sales, amounted 
to $9,807.13. Thus the net profit for the year was a little more 
than $380. 

The report of the board to the Assembly of 1869 set forth in 
appealing terms the need of more books for the church, and the 
need of more money with which to produce them. Attention was 
called to the board's condition of absolute dependence on other 
publishing houses for its printing. The Assembly resolved to raise 
fifty thousand dollars to place the enterprise on a firmer and broader 
basis. It also increased the number of members composing the 
board to five. In 1869, Dr. Provine resigned his position, and W. 

B. Dunaway was elected publishing agent. The report to the 
Assembly of 1870 showed a marked increase in donations, sales, 
profits, and assets. The appointment of an agent to raise the fifty 
thousand dollars was recommended. A store was opened January 
1, 187 1, for the purchase and sale of religious and literary books, in 
connection with the sale of the church's own publications. Rev. T. 

C. Blake, D.D., was employed in 1871 as financial agent to raise the 
fifty thousand dollars. Exclusive of his compensation and ex- 
penses, he secured $7,107.47. By permission of the Assembly of 
1873, this money, with accrued interest, was used for the purposes 
of publication, with the understanding that a certain portion, sup- 
posed to have been contributed expressly to build or buy a publish- 
ing house, should be appropriated, with interest, to that purpose, 



584 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

whenever a sufficient sum was secured. The treasurer still holds 
the agent's notes for the same. 

In August, 1872, the Rev. M. B. DeWitt, D.D., was made 
soliciting agent and book editor, and became editor of the Sunday- 
school periodicals, and of the Theological Medium. He continued 
his editorial work in these several departments until the fall of 
1879, when he resigned, and other arrangements were made. 

During the year 1872 the board purchased of Dr. T. C. Blake 
the Sunday-school Gem and the Theological Medium for $2,500, 
the board filling out the unexpired subscriptions of each. As early 
as 1 85 1 a memorial from Mackinaw Presbytery had called the at- 
tention of the General Assembly to the necessity for a Sunday- 
school paper, and of a missionary paper. The committee on pub- 
lication to whom the memorial was referred, reported favorably, 
but the whole subject was referred to the next Assembly. When 
the next Assembly met, no action was taken in regard to this mat- 
ter. The Gem had when purchased 15,000 subscribers, and the 
Medium 1,180. The number of subscribers to the latter dimin- 
ished during the succeeding year to 525, and in 1879 it had ceased 
to be self-sustaining. Then the board, by order of the Assembly, 
filled out its unexpired subscriptions and donated this quarterly to 
the theological faculty of Cumberland University. The subscrip- 
tions to the Gem increased during the year 1873 to 24,000. Its 
patronage has since been divided with Our Lambs, the publication 
of which was commenced by the board in 1877, and both together 
have now (1887) a circulation of about 35,000. 

Prior to 1874 the church never owned a newspaper. Once, on 
condition of being allowed to appoint the editors, it made a private 
newspaper its organ, but left the ownership still in private hands. 
After a very unsatisfactory experience in pursuing this plan, the 
whole newspaper business was again left to private enterprise. 
Several evils, however, seemed to be inseparable from this system 
of independent church journalism. At some periods newspapers 
multiplied beyond the prospect of support, and their quality often 
deteriorated in proportion to the increase of their number. There 
were frequent controversies and rivalries among them, and at times 
some of them were arrayed against leading enterprises of the 



Chapter XL VII.] PUBLICATION. 585 

church. Owing to lack of financial support, however, many of 
these publications were short-lived, and it happened not infre- 
quently that two or more of them were forced to consolidate. 

In the Assembly of 1852, the Rev. J. N. Roach read a paper on 
the subject of a religious journal under the control of the Assembly. 

The Assembly of 1858 adopted a resolution favoring a consol- 
idation of all the church papers owned and published by individu- 
als. In 1868 a memorial from Princeton Presbytery was presented 
to the Assembly, asking that the Board of Publication should be 
directed to begin the publication of a religious journal for the 
church. The report of the Committee on Publication, adopted by 
the Assembly, approved the proposed step, but did not recommend 
immediate action because of the board's lack of money. Another 
memorial on this subject was presented to the Assembly of 1873 
by Bell Presbytery, and, in its report to that Assembly, the board 
expressed the opinion that an effort should be made to bring about 
a consolidation of the existing newspapers. The report of the 
Committee on Publication, adopted by the Assembly, favored the 
measure, setting forth the reasons therefor at considerable length. 
Expressing a desire that the church should not enter into competi- 
tion with the owners of the existing papers, it recommended that 
the board should be "instructed to negotiate w T ith them, and, if 
possible, procure their interests in their respective publications at 
reasonable rates." 

To the Assembly of 1874 the board reported that it had been 
found impracticable at that time to purchase the papers then in 
existence. That Assembly adopted a report, which said: " It is the 
sense of this General Assembly that fair terms should be offered to 
the proprietors of the present weekly church papers, not to be less 
than the estimate fixed by disinterested parties mutually chosen, 
and should the terms thus offered be not accepted, the board will 
report to the next General Assembly its views on the propriety of 
establishing a weekly newspaper for the church." The owners of 
the Banner of Peace and Cumberland Presbyterian declined to 
submit their property to the valuation of disinterested parties, 
stating that the property was not for sale. By private negotiation, 
however, in the fall of 1874, "the good will" of the Banner of 



586 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

Peace was purchased by the board from the Rev. S. P. Chesnut, 
D.D., for ten thousand dollars. Soon afterward, the board pur- 
chased of Brown & Perrin the good- will of the Cumberland Pres- 
byterian, together with a printing press and other machinery, for 
thirteen thousand dollars. The machinery was supposed to be 
worth about three thousand dollars. The good- will of the Texas 
Cumberland Presbyterian was purchased of the Rev. J. H. Wofford 
for twenty-five hundred dollars. 

All the papers were consolidated at Nashville, Tennessee, at the 
total cost of $25,500, the Board of Publication agreeing to fill 
out the unexpired subscriptions of the three papers. The consol- 
idated paper was first called the B a?iner~Presbyterian, but the 
name proved unsatisfactory, and was changed to the Cumberla?id 
Presbyterian. Rev. J. R. Brown, D. D. , was chosen sole editor, and 
continued in that position till July 1st, 1883, when Rev. D. M. 
Harris, D.D., was made joint editor. Dr. Brown's connection with 
the paper ceased April 1st, 1885, when Dr. Harris was made editor 
in chief. The Rev. J. M. Howard, D. D. , at this time became asso- 
ciate editor of the Cumberland Presbyterian and book editor. 

After the purchase of the three weekly papers, the former owner 
of one of them, and one of the joint owners of another, became 
interested in the publication at the same places of papers similar in 
character to those sold.. It was contended that such action not 
only involved disloyalty to the church, but also impaired the u good- 
will ' ' purchased by the board, and was in violation of the contract. 
These questions gave rise to extended discussion in the church, and 
to deliverances by four General Assemblies. What principles, 
if any, are settled by these deliverances, it would perhaps be un- 
profitable now to discuss. 

The subscriptions to the papers, when consolidated, amounted 
to about seven thousand five hundred. The consolidated paper 
now has a circulation of about fifteen thousand. The price of 
the consolidated paper is two dollars. It furnishes about twice as 
much reading matter as any one of its predecessors. It has grown 
steadily in influence and usefulness. Thus the church has one large 
weekly to which all our people can justly look with satisfaction — 
strong, able, and under the church's own control. 



Chapter XLVII.] PUBLICATION. 587 

In 1874 the board began the publication of a monthly journal 
Sunday Morning, for the use of Sunday-school teachers, officers 
and advanced pupils. It attained a circulation of about twenty- 
eight hundred, but from considerations of economy was discontin- 
ued in 1879. It was followed in the same year by The Comments 
a Sunday-school quarterly, and in 1885 a quarterly of lower grade 
was commenced, called The Rays of Light. These two publica- 
tions have now a combined circulation of about thirty-five thou- 
sand. 

Since 1879 Rev. R. V. Foster, D.D., has been the editor, except 
during a short interval, of the Continents, Rays of Light, and Lesson 
Leaf He was also the editor of the Gem and Our Lambs until 
July, 1883, when they were committed to the editorial manage- 
ment of Mrs. Caroline M. Harris. 

Mr. W. E. Dunaway was business manager of the board from 
1870 to the latter part of 1874, when he resigned and was succeed- 
ed by Rev. T. C. Blake, D.D., who filled this position until failing 
health compelled his resignation in October, 1878. November 1, 
1878, John M. Gaut was made corresponding secretary, and, at 
the request of the board, took temporary charge of the business, 
exercising a supervisory control over it. He continued in this 
position till December 1, 1880, when T. M. Hurst was appointed 
agent and business manager. Mr. Hurst's resignation took place 
May, 1886, at which time John D. Wilson was elected agent. 

The assets of the board gradually increased from $5,217, in July, 
1867, to §81,879.05, May 1, 1887. Their valuation approached 
this latter sum during some of the previous years, but, as was after- 
ward ascertained, they were largely overvalued. The liabilities 
also increased from nothing in 1867, to $12,390.53 in 1887, having 
at times during the intervening years been larger than that. The 
indebtedness in 1879 was so great and the receipts so small that 
the board was very seriously embarrassed. Without the individual 
credit of several members of the board freely extended for several 
years, it would have been difficult, if not impossible, to have 
averted a suspension of business. An extension of time had to 
be asked of its creditors, a general retrenchment of expenses 
was made, and its income largely increased by an increase in the 



588 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

subscribers to the periodicals. In this way the house was greatly 
relieved. A large burden of debt continued upon it, however, 
till 1884, when the church by donations in sums of ten dollars, 
in response to what was known as "the Uncle Josh Proposition," 
generously contributed upward of ten thousand dollars to pay off 
the indebtedness. The originator of this proposition was Mr. 
Joshua D. Spain, of Nashville. 

Since 1867 the books published by the board have increased 
about threefold, and a large number of valuable pamphlets have 
been issued. 

It is curious to note how long the church has been in realizing 
its desire for certain publications. A committee was appointed 
in 1824 t° collect materials for a history of the Cumberland 
Presbyterian Church. In 1847 the General Assembly resolved to 
have such a history written, and a committee was appointed to 
do this work. In 1848 this committee reported progress. The 
necessity for such a history was urged in the report of the Board 
of Publication in 1850. The Rev. H. S. Porter, D.D., of Memphis, 
Tennessee, began the writing of the church's history, but died be- 
fore the work was finished. In 1856 his widow tendered to the 
General Assembly his incomplete manuscript and the papers which 
he had collected. The donation was accepted and a committee 
appointed to engage a competent person to complete the work. 
Then the enterprise seems to have slumbered. In 1884 — sixty 
years after the initial effort — the board took the step of which this 
volume is the resuft. 

The Assembly of 1852 appointed Rev. Milton Bird to prepare 
for publication u a copious abstract" of the Minutes of the Coun- 
cil, of Old Cumberland Presbytery, of New Cumberland Presbytery, 
of Cumberland Synod, and of the several General Assemblies from 
the first to that date; and the Board of Publication was authorized 
to publish the same. This abstract was prepared and is still in 
existence. Why it was not published is not known. In 1858 the 
stated clerk was requested to publish an abstract or digest of these 
records; and the next Assembly by resolution inquired what he had 
done toward complying with this request. In 1869 a resolution 
was adopted, recommending that the Board of Publication should 



Chapter XLVIL] PUBLICATION. 589 

have a digest 01 the Assembly's deliverances prepared and pub- 
lished as soon as practicable. A subsequent Assembly appointed 
the board and the stated clerk to do this work. The stated clerk, 
Hon. John Frizzell, prepared such a digest, and the Assembly of 
1878 appointed a committee to review it, and ordered its publica- 
tion if it was approved. The Assembly of 1885 appointed another 
committee to take this matter in hand. This committee reported 
in 1886, when the whole subject was referred to the next Assembly. 
That Assembly appointed the Hon. John Frizzell to complete the 
work, and it will doubtless be ready for the press early in 1888. 

The preparation of a hymn and tune book was recommended 
by the Assembly of 1869. The manuscript of such a work was 
presented to the Assembly of 1870 and referred to the Board of 
Publication. The board, fearing that the selections were not 
adapted to the wants of the church deferred publishing the book. 
In 1873 the Assembly again expressed itself in favor of such a 
publication. In that year the Rev. A. J. Baird, D.D., of Nashville, 
proposed to undertake the compilation of such a work, asking 
as his only compensation that the board should furnish his church 
with a supply of the books. The proposition was accepted, and 
after many months of painstaking labor, his manuscript was 
ready to be presented to the General Assembly of 1874. By this 
General Assembly it was referred to a committee for examination. 
It was slightly amended by this committee, and abridged by the 
author. Then the revised manuscript was approved by the Assem- 
bly of 1875, and the first edition of the work was published by the 
board in 1876. 

The long, faithful, and arduous labors of one of the late hon- 
ored presidents of the board, the Rev. W. E. Ward, D. D. , deserve 
special mention. From 1858 to 1879, excepting the years when 
the Pittsburg committee was in charge, he taxed an already over- 
burdened heart and brain with the additional cares and responsi- 
bilities of this struggling institution. 

The following list contains the names of all who have ever 
served as members of the board or the Committee of Publication, 
and shows, with approximate accuracy, the time of each member's 
service. Except in a few instances, it has been found impossible 



59° 



Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 



to ascertain exact dates. Most of the dates here indicated show 
when the several elections, resignations, or deaths are first men- 
tioned in the board's annual reports. 



Rev. Milton Bird 

Rev. Laban Jones 

F. E. McLean 

A.M. Phelps 

James L. Stratton . . . 

Rev. S. M. Aston 

Rev. S. B. Howard... 

E. C. Trimble 

Charles Miller 

Rev. B.Hall 

Rev. F. G. Black 

Rev. Le Roy Woods.. 

A. F. Cox 

Rev. Caleb Weedin... 

F. P. Detheridge 

P. N. Frederick 

Andrew Allison 

Rev. W. E. Ward 

Rev. W. E. Ward 

Rev. Wiley M. Reed. 

Joseph Pennock 

Rev. S. T. Stewart ... 

Samuel Morrow 

Alexander Postley .... 

T. C. Leazear 

Rev. I. N. Cary 

Edward De Barrenne 

Rev. A. J. Baird 

Rev. L. C. Ransom.. 

David C. Lovo 

John Frizzell 

Terry H. Cahal 

John M. Gaut 

W. C. Smith 

Wm. Porter 

P. H. Manlove , 

R. L. Caruthers, Jr. . 

Travis Winham 

W. F. Nisbet 

Thos. W. Campbell ... 

E. Waterhouse 

Rev. R. M. Tinnon... 

Isaac T. Rhea 

Rev. J. P. Sprowls.... 
John H. Reynolds.... 

Rev. W.J. Darby 

Rev. J. C. Provine.... 

H. Parks, Jr 

W. T. Baird 



From 1847 to 1855 

" 1847 to 

" 1847 to 1854 

" 1847 to 1852 

« 1847 to 

" to 1851 or 1852 

" 1851 or lr52 to 1856 

" 1852 to 1857 

" 1854 to 1858 

" 1855 to 1856 

" 1856 to 1858 

" 1856 to 1858 

" 1856 to 1857 

11 1856 to 1858 

" 1857 to 1858 

" 1857 to, 858 

" 1858 to 1862 

" 1858 to 1862 

" 1867 to 1879 

" 1858 to 1862 

" 1862 to 1865 

" 1862 to 1867 

" 1862 to 1865 

" 1862 to 1867 

" 1862 to 1865 

" 1865 to 1867 

1867 

" 1867 to 1870 

" 1867 to 1867 

" 1867 to 1874 

" 1869 to 1881 

" 1870tol872 

" 1870— now a member 

" 1872 to 1880 

" 1874 to 1876 

" 1876 — now a member, 

" 1879 to 1881 

" 1879 to 1883 

11 1881 to 1886 

" 1881 to 1887 

" 1881 to 1885 

11 1882 to 1884 

" 1883 to 1887 

" 1834 to 1886 

" 1886 — now a member. 

" 1887— " " 

" 1887— " 

" 1887— " 

" 1887— " " 



President and Cor. Sec. 



President. 



President. 
Chairman. 



Chairman. 
President. 
President. 



Vice-president and President. 

President, Treas., Cor. Sec. 
Secretary. 

Secretary. 
Secretary. 



Secretary. 
Secretary. 

Secretary. 






NEWSPAPERS. 

The church's first paper, as has been seen, was the Religious 
a?id Literary Intelligencer. Its publication was begun by Cossitt 
& Lowry, at Princeton, Ky., early in 1830. It was moved to 
Nashville in 1832, and its name changed to the Revivalist In 
1834 its name was changed to the Cumberland Presbyterian. In 
1839 its publication, after a brief suspension, was resumed at 
Springfield, Tennessee, where it expired in May, 1840. Its editors 
from first to last were F. R. Cossitt, David Lowry, and James 
Smith; assistants, T. C. Anderson and John W. Ogden. 



Chapter XLVIL] NEWSPAPERS. 



591 



The Banner of Peace — 1S40 to 1874. 

In March 1840, Dr. Cossitt, at Princeton, Kentucky, began the 
issue of a monthly pamphlet with this title. It was removed to 
Lebanon, Tennessee, January, 1843. Soon after this it was changed 
to a weekly. In 1850 the Rev. W. D. Chadick, D.D., bought this 
paper and continued its publication at Lebanon, at the same time 
purchasing and consolidating with it The Ark, a monthly, hitherto 
published at Athens, Tennessee, by Rev. Robert Frazier. Then he 
took Rev. David Lowry into partnership, both as proprietor and 
editor. He and Lowry sold the Banner of Peace to the Rev. Isaac 
Shook and the Rev. J. C. Provine. The paper was then moved to 
Nashville, where it remained till it was absorbed by the consol- 
idated paper in 1874. Its succession of editors, after its removal to 
Nashville, was as follows: J. C. Provine, W. S. Langdon, W. E. 
Ward, J. C. Provine, J. M. Kalsell, T. C. Blake, S. P. Chesnut. 
Some of the articles which appeared in the Banner of Peace were 
afterward collected and published in book form. Mahlon's Let- 
ters, by Dr. A. J. Baird, is one example. Others might well have 
been preserved in a similar manner. 

Church Papers in Pennsylvania. 

A Cumberland Presbyterian newspaper was started in Pennsyl- 
vania before John Morgan began the publication of the Union and 
Evangelist, but no record of its name or its work has been found. 
It is alluded to sarcastically by Smith in his editorials. It ran a 
very brief course. In 1840 the Unio?t and Evangelist began its 
career at Uniontown, Pennsylvania. After some time the Rev. J. 
P. Wee thee became assistant editor. The next year Morgan died, 
and Milton Bird continued the publication for a short time at 
Uniontown. He then moved his paper to Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, 
and changed its name to the Evangelist and Observer. In 1846 
we find the paper back at Uniontown, and its name changed to 
The Ctimberland Presbyterian. Afterward the Rev. A. B. Brice 
became associate editor along with Bird. In 1847 Brice bought 
out Bird's interest, and continued to publish the paper at Union- 
town till 1850. Then he removed to Brownsville and associated 
the Rev. J. T. A. Henderson with himself in the editorial work. 



592 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

In 1857 the Rev. William Campbell was editor, and in i860 the 
paper was issued from Waynesburg. In 1863 we find the name of 
the Rev. A. B. Miller, D. D. , as editor, and after a while the name 
of Azel Freeman, associated with Dr. Miller's. 

In November, 1868, Dr. Miller sold out his subscription list to 
Dr. J. B. Logan, of Illinois, and Pennsylvania for more than eight 
years had no Cumberland Presbyterian paper. In May, 1877, at 
Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, the Rev. Philip Axtell began the publi- 
cation of The Religions Pantagraph, a large weekly. It was con- 
tinued until November, 1878, when its subscription list, which had 
reached eleven hundred, was transferred to the St. Louis Observer. 
During a part of the year 1881, a small monthly, the Semi- Centen- 
nial, was issued at Pittsburg by Mr. Axtell, but its publication was 
suspended before the year closed. 

The Cumberland Presbyterian Pulpit. 

This was a monthly devoted to the publication of sermons. 
The first number was issued at Nashville, Tennessee, in January, 
1833, by the Rev. James Smith. The first volume contains three 
sermons from Finis Ewing: one on the atonement, one against 
slavery, and one on Christian union ; two sermons each from David 
Lowry, Robert Donnell, and Abner McDowell; and one each from 
Hiram A. Hunter, James Guthrie, George Donnell, William Ral- 
ston, Laban Jones, David Foster, Isaac Shook, David Morrow, 
John W. Ogden, James Smith, Richard Beard, A. G. Gibson, 
Robert Sloane, J. L,. Dillard, David M. Kirkpatrick, Alexander 
Anderson, and C. P. Reed. One of the sermons furnished by 
Robert Donnell was preached at the Rev. William McGee's funeral, 
and the one contributed by John W. Ogden, was preached at the 
funeral of the Rev. William Barnett. Richard Beard's contribution 
was a sermon on The Church. It abounds in poetical quotations. 

These sermons show what was the character of the preaching in 
Cumberland Presbyterian pulpits during the first two decades of 
the church's history. In all of them there is the utmost plainness 
and directness of manner. Reading them reminds us of Moody 
and his stirring appeals to sinners. In Donnell' s sermon, preached 
at the funeral of William McGee, we are told that there were conver- 
sions under almost every sermon that McGee ever preached. That 



Chapter XLVII.] NEWSPAPERS. 



593 



statement calls up a remark which the writer, when only a child, 
heard Robert Donnell make to the Rev. Samuel McSpeddin. He 
used something like these words: "Brother McSpeddin, there is 
something wrong. I have now preached two sermons in succession 
without witnessing one single conversion." How many sermons 
in succession do our preachers now deliver without witnessing a 
conversion ? How many preach without either expecting or pray- 
ing for conversions ? Some have set times in the future, and look 
forward to the protracted meeting season, when they expect and 
pray for conversions; and they grind their ecclesiastical organs to 
entertain and hold their congregations together the rest of the 
year. 

The Ark — 1S41 to 1850. 

In September, 1841, the Rev. Robert Frazier began the publi- 
cation of The Ark, at Athens, Tennessee. This was a monthly. 
It at first had three special departments: 1. Doctrinal, 2. Eccle- 
siastical, 3. Moral. An historical department was afterward added. 
One thing might have been safely predicted in advance of all Fra- 
zier' s editorials. He would run in no ruts. He called no man 
master. There was a boldness and vigor about his writings which 
constituted their chief charm. Oftener wrong, perhaps, than right 
in the positions he took, it is manifest at least that he was honest 
and thoroughly in earnest in all these positions. He was fearless, 
too, attacking every thing in the church which he believed to be 
wrong. His paper earnestly advocated the divorce of the church 
courts from all secular* enterprises. 

The Texas Presbyterian. 

Iii November, 1846, the Rev. A. J. McGown issued the first 
number of this paper at Victoria, Texas. It was a large four-page 
weekly. Its location was several times changed. After publishing 
this paper nine years as a private enterprise, he tried to induce his 
synod to take charge of it. In this, however, he was not success- 
ful, and so he continued to plead for the interests of the Texas 
churches in its columns. Not only was the paper valuable to the 
local interests, but some of the best materials for a history of the 
progress of the church in other fields have been gathered from arti- 
cles published in it. It is asserted by some that this was the first 
38 



594 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

Protestant newspaper ever published on Texas soil. McGown and 
his paper received strong commendations from members of other 
churches, from old soldiers of San Jacinto, and from authors of 
stately volumes. 

Texas Cumberland Presbyterian— Texas Observer. 

The Texas Cu?nberland Presbyterian was not the same paper 
McGown edited, but a new enterprise, undertaken after his death. 
Its publication was begun by Rev. J. B. Renfro and Rev. J. H. 
Wofford, at Tehuacana, April, 1873, and it was continued until the 
Assembly's consolidation scheme absorbed all the private news- 
papers of the church. The sale of this paper to the church was 
accomplished in December, 1874. Wofford had previously bought 
out Renfro' s interest. In 1879 Mr. Wofford began the publication 
of a new paper, the Texas Observer, at Tehuacana. This paper 
has changed owners and editors several times, and the place of 
publication has also been frequently changed. It is now issued as 
the organ of Trinity University by a stock company. Under this 
arrangement Dr. E. B. Crisman and the Rev. J. S. Groves were 
until recently the editors. The Rev. W. B. Preston has lately be- 
come editor. Its name has been changed to the Texas Cumber- 
land Presbyterian. 

The Watchman and Evangelist — 1850 to 1859. 

Milton Bird, after he sold the Cumberland Presbyterian, at 
Uniontown, Pennsylvania, to the Rev. A. B. Brice, moved to Louis- 
ville, Kentucky, and, in 1850, started the Watchman and Evan- 
gelist there. After several changes of editors, this paper was, in 
1859, consolidated with the Missouri Cumberland Presbyterian, 
and moved to St. Louis. 

Papers in Missouri and Illinois. 

St. Louis, Missouri, and Alton, Illinois, have for a long time 
jointly constituted an important newspaper center for our people. 
In May, 1852, at the earnest solicitation of a number of Missouri 
ministers and leading laymen, the Rev. J. B. Logan began the 
publication of the Missouri Cumberland Presbyterian at Lexing- 
ton, Missouri. He had the promise of five hundred subscribers to 
begin with, and the list was to be increased to one thousand by the 



Chapter XLVIL] NEWSPAPERS. 595 

close of the year; but he began with three hundred. In a year he 
moved the paper to St. Louis. In 1858 or 1859 the Watchman and 
Evangelist, published at Louisville by A. F. Cox, and edited by 
the Rev. Milton Bird, D. D. , was united with the Missouri Cum- 
berland Presbyterian, and the consolidated paper was called the 
St. Louis Observer. Dr. Bird was for a time its editor. Mr. Cox 
afterward bought this paper. About the beginning of the war the 
list was sold to the Cumberland Presbyterian, then published at 
Waynesburg, Pennsylvania. 

About 1 86 1 the Rev. J. B. Logan began the publication of the 
Western Cumberlarid Presbyterian, at Alton, Illinois. It was 
continued under this name until November, 1868, when it became 
the Cumberland Presbyterian, its proprietor having purchased 
from Dr. A. B. Miller, of Waynesburg, Pennsylvania, the paper 
bearing this latter title. The Rev. J. R. Brown became joint 
editor and also joint proprietor of this consolidated paper. In 1874 
it was sold to the Board of Publication by Brown and Perrin, and 
removed to Nashville, Tennessee. 

In September, 1875, the publication of Our Faith was begun 
at Alton. This was a monthly, and the Rev. J. B. Logan, D.D., 
was its editor. It was continued about a year and a half, when it 
was merged into the St. Louis Observer. The latter was a weekly 
paper, and the Rev. W. B. Farr, D.D., was made its editor. The 
Rev. W. C. Logan afterward became associate editor. Mr. Logan 
and the Rev. J. R. Brown, D. D. , are its present editors. 

The Ladies' Pearl — 1852 to 1S84. 

This was a monthly magazine for women. Its publication was 
commenced at Nashville, Tennessee, by W. S. Langdon and J. C. 
Pro vine, in 1852. It was the testimony of Dr. Herschel S. Porter 
that this magazine did more to develop the talents of the women 
of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church than all other agencies 
put together. Hosts of sprightly writers were called out who knew 
nothing of their own powers till the Pearl developed them. J. B. 
Logan, J. R. Brown, John Shirley Ward, J. M. Halsell, and S. P. 
Chesnut were all at one time or another editors of this magazine. 
Dr. Chesnut finally sold it, and Cumberland Presbyterians ceased 
to have any periodical specially for ladies. 



596 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

The Pacific Observer. 

In i860, at Alamo, California, the Rev. T. M. Johnston started 
the first Cumberland Presbyterian paper on the Pacific coast. It 
was first called The Presbyter, afterward The Pacific Observer. At 
first it was issued monthly, but was soon changed to a weekly. It 
was removed to Stockton, and was of good size and well printed. 
The subscription price was four dollars a year. The isolated con- 
dition of our feeble churches in California gave a poor prospect for 
sufficient patronage to sustain such a paper; but Johnston perse- 
vered, though at a heavy pecuniary loss. He felt that the paper 
was a necessity to the church in that country; and he spared 
neither toil nor money in the struggle to meet the pressing de- 
mand. An editorial in the Banner of Peace commended this Cal- 
ifornia paper and its self-sacrificing editor in these words: 

One of our best exchanges is the Pacific Observe?', edited by Rev. 
T. M. Johnston, Stockton, California. It is not only a credit to the 
head and heart of its noble proprietor, but to the Cumberland Presby- 
terian church. Brother Johnston is one of our purest and most efficient 
ministers; and it would, perhaps, be safe to say that no one else would 
have made the sacrifices he has to sustain our cause in the far West. 

In 187 1 this paper was bought by Dr. D. B. Bushnell, and 
moved from Stockton to San Francisco, where it ran a short course 
and then ceased to exist. Its fruits, however, still live. 

The Theological Medium — 1845 to 1884. 

In 1845, at Uniontown, Pennsylvania, the Rev. Milton Bird 
issued the first number of the Theological Medium. It was at first 
a monthly, devoted to theological discussions. Its first article was 
a discussion of the subject of election, by the Rev. Albert Gibson. 
It frequently published sermons. Its location was several times 
changed. Finally it was changed into a quarterly. It passed 
through various hands. Dr. T. C. Blake owned and edited it 
a while. Then it was bought by the Board of Publication, and the 
Rev. M. B. DeWitt was its editor. After this the theological pro- 
fessors in Cumberland University were its proprietors and editors. 
Then W. C. Logan, of St. Louis, Missouri, in whose hands it died, 
was its owner and editor. Its name had, in the meantime, under- 



Chapter XLVII.j NEWSPAPERS. 507 

gone some transformations. Its last name was the Cumberland 
Presbyteria,7i Quarterly. 

The doctrines and policy of the church were ably discussed in 
this quarterly. So, also, were many questions of general interest. 
Nearly all our best scholars and writers were at one time or another 
contributors to its pages. Its hies furnish a striking record of the 
views and the progress of our people, and indicate a gratifying 
unity of doctrine and harmony of feeling. No arguments against 
the inspiration of the Bible, no clerical infidelity, no "scientific 
apostasy from the faith " is to be found in any of these productions 
of our writers. Solid, old-time views on all the great leading doc- 
trines greet us everywhere as we peruse these pages. The doctrine 
of the plenary inspiration of the whole Bible, of the eternal pun- 
ishment of the finally impenitent, of the vicarious atonement of 
Christ, of the spiritually dead state of the unconverted, and, there- 
fore, of the absolute necessity of regeneration and of justification 
by faith, together with all the other standard doctrines of our Con- 
fession of Faith, are ably enforced. Some little differences in 
minor matters there are, of course, but there is a general unity in 
sound and orthodox teaching. We find, too, in these files many 
able articles from recognized leaders on the necessity of holy living. 
Prominent among those pleading for holiness of life were Samuel 
McAdow and Dr. Beard. 

Cumberland Presbyterians have had in all over fifty periodicals, 
and over one hundred editors. There have been six newspaper 
centers in the Cumberland Presbyterian church : one in Kentucky, 
one in Tennessee, one in Pennsylvania, one in Texas, one at Alton 
or St. Louis, and one on the Pacific coast. The Rev. F. Lack's 
paper in the German language, and some occasional publications 
in the Japanese tongue, are the only periodicals ever published 
by our people not in the English language. There have been 
transient issues of some sort in the Choctaw language and, per- 
haps, in the Cherokee, but no regular periodicals. The church 
has an important work to do in furnishing a periodical literature 
for our children and young people. Our Sunday-school publica- 
tions are doing great good, and have a most inviting field of use- 
fulness to cultivate. 



598 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

REVISION OF THE CONFESSION OF FAITH— 1854 AND 18S3. 

From the first there was dissatisfaction with the arrangement 
of the chapters of our Confession of Faith. Besides this, there 
were in the book scraps of the Westminster Confession that be- 
longed naturally to the rejected system of fatality, and were hard 
to fit into the system held and preached with great unanimity by 
our ministers. This fault of our first Confession was freely admitted 
by the men who compiled the book. Strong statements to this 
effect, from Ewing in particular, exist now in manuscript, to be 
filed in the library of Cumberland University. In spite of these 
admissions, not only the original compilers of the book but a great 
number of younger men feared to open the door of revision, lest 
too great innovations should be made. What greatly strengthened 
these fears was the fact that one or two strong men in the church 
who rejected vital points in our system of doctrines were acknowl- 
edged leaders among revisionists. 

In 1852 the following paper was submitted to the Assembly by 
the Rev. Samuel Dennis: 

Whereas, It is believed by many, whose opinions deserve respect- 
ful consideration, that in order to a more clear, definite, and literal ren- 
dering of the distinctive tenets of Cumberland Presbyterianism, a 
revision of the Confession of Faith and Form of Government is neces- 
sary; and, whereas, it is believed that such revision can be safely under- 
taken by this General Assembly; therefore, 

Resolved, 1. That a committee of nine be appointed by this General 
Assembly, whose duty it shall be to take under consideration every part 
of the Confession of Faith and the Form of Government, and report 
the result of their labors to the next General Assembly. 

2. That said committee shall have no power to diminish any chapter 
or section, or add thereto, only in so far as they may esteem it necessary 
to present the doctrines and government of the church in as literal, 
clear, and unambiguous manner as possible; and they are hereby for- 
bidden to introduce a new chapter or section, unless they shall esteem 
an additional section to the sixteenth chapter of the Form of Govern- 
ment necessary to carry out the provisions of said chapter; nor shall 
they be permitted to add foot-notes. 

After considerable discussion, this was negatived. The yeas and 
nays being called stood, yeas, 14; nays, 69. 



Chapter XL VII.] REVISION. 599 

But the revisionists were not to be put down, even by so decided 
a vote. The very next year they came with a synodical memorial, 
asking for revision. The Assembly of 1853 yielded so far as to 
appoint a committee to prepare a revised Confession. As soon as 
this was done, the Banner of Peace closed its columns against the 
discussion of the question. Its editor was a revisionist, but Milton 
Bird, who was opposed to revision, kept the columns of his paper 
open to this discussion. The committee prepared a new creed, 
and printed it and the creed of 1814 in parallel columns. This 
was a very fair and satisfactory mode of presenting the case. This 
amended Confession was reported by the committee to the Assem- 
bly of 1854. It contained no new doctrines, but presented a re- 
arrangement of the order of the chapters. A few objectionable 
phrases were struck out, and words more in keeping with the gen- 
eral method of presenting our doctrines in the pulpit substituted. 
The first, second, fourth, seventh, twelfth, sixteenth, seventeenth, 
eighteenth, nineteenth, twentieth, twenty - first, twenty - second, 
twenty-third, twenty-fourth, twenty -fifth, twenty-sixth, twenty- 
seventh, and twenty-ninth chapters of the Confesssion were pre- 
sented unchanged. 

On the question of accepting this report and of submitting the 
proposed amendments to the presbyteries, speeches were made by 
Dr. S. G. Burney and the Rev. Reuben Burrow in favor of the 
revision; and by Dr.' Richard Beard and Judge R. L. Caruthers 
against it. Very deep interest was felt in the discussion. Robert 
Donnell, who helped to prepare our first Confession, was present 
and took sides with the opposers of revision. There was not time 
during the sitting of one Assembly thoroughly to examine and dis- 
cuss the proposed amendments. Men feared evils which these 
changes did not involve. When the vote was reached there was 
a very large majority against the new book. 

One of the strangest things in all the history of the church took 
place after that. A synod went so far as to pass a vote of cen. 
sure upon the Assembly for refusing to refer that revised Confession 
to the presbyteries, and published its action in the Banner of 
Peace. 

An effort to revise our Form of Government has already been 



600 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

alluded to. It engaged the attention of every General Assembly 
from 1867 to 1874. A committee consisting of Richard Beard, S. 
G. Burney, J. H. Coulter, R. h. Caruthers, and John Frizzell was 
appointed in the year first named, and reported to the Assembly of 
1868 a revised Form of Government and Discipline, which was 
approved and submitted to the presbyteries. Fifty-eight of the 
one hundred presbyteries reported action on it, and but eight of 
these approved the revision as a whole; twenty accepted parts of 
it, while twenty-eight rejected the whole. A new committee, con- 
sisting of F. G. Black, H. D. Onyett, A. Templeton, C. H. Bell, 
and Nathan Green was however appointed to perfect this work of 
revision. By the order of the Assembly of 1870, fifteen hundred 
copies of this new committee's report were printed and the whole 
matter referred to the next Assembly. Much of the time of the 
Assemblies of 187 1 and 1872 was spent in discussing and amending 
this proposed revision. Twenty-one chapters, composing a new 
Form of Government, were approved by the Assembly in 1872, and 
submitted to the presbyteries. Thirty-seven presbyteries voted in 
favor of these chapters, and forty-two against them, while twenty- 
five presbyteries were not heard from. By the Assembly of 1873 
the same matter was referred back to the presbyteries to enable 
them to review their action. But in 1874 but forty-three presby- 
teries reported in favor of this revision, while forty-six voted against 
it. The matter was then indefinitely postponed. 

In 1 88 1 a memorial was presented to the General Assembly, 
again asking for a revision of the Confession of Faith. That As- 
sembly appointed two committees, one to revise the book, and 
another to revise this revision. The first committee consisted of 
S. G. Burney, A. Templeton, and John Frizzell; the second, of C. 
H. Bell, J. W. Poindexter, A. B. Miller, W. J. Darby, and R. L. 
Caruthers. These committees early in 1882 published the result 
of their work in the Cumberland Presbyterian, presenting a "Re- 
vised Confession of Faith, and Government." This report was 
also printed in pamphlet form, and mailed to all the ministers of 
the church. It was introduced by a statement, signed by all the 
members of the committee who participated in the work, setting 
forth in a very forcible manner the reasons why the revision was 



Chapter XLVIL] REVISION. 6oi 

thought desirable. This introduction gave the following account 
of the work of the committees: 

The first committee met at Lebanon, Tennessee, November 18, 
1881, all the members being present, and continued its labors until the 
evening of the 24th, holding three sessions daily, Sunday excepted. 
The second committee convened November 25, 1881, at the same place, 
Ministers C. H. Bell and W. J. Darby, and Ruling Elder R. L. Caruth- 
ers being present; and continued its labors one week, holding three 
sessions daily, Sunday excepted. By request the first committee was 
present with the second at its meetings, and participated in its delibera- 
tions. . The discussions were full and free, evincing a wonderful harmony 
of opinion. Some preferences as to verbal form had, of course, to be 
surrendered. This, however, was always done in the true spirit of 
compromise, and in no instance was there a negative vote. Mindful of 
the fact that the committees were appointed not to make a new Con- 
fession, but to revise the old one, we have studied not to transcend our 
authority; and we have no hesitation in saying that we have not changed 
a single doctrine fundamental to your scheme of theology, or any of its 
logical correlates. 

It was announced that the object of publishing this report before 
the meeting of the Assembly was "to secure to the committees the 
benefit of the suggestions and criticisms or objections" that any 
person might wish to make before the revised book should be finally 
presented to the Assembly. The secretaries of the two committees 
published the following statement: 

The committees feel that they have discharged the trust assigned 
them by the General Assembly with a conscientious regard to its impor- 
tance, but they will meet again for a final revision previous to the meet- 
ing of the Assembly. Any suggestion forwarded to them in the mean- 
time will be carefully considered before the matter is submitted to the 
Assembly. 

The discussion of this report and of questions connected with 
it was excluded from the church paper until after the meeting of 
the Assembly of 1882, the editor assigning the following reasons: 

The report being yet in the hands of the committee, and incomplete, 
it of course is not yet presented for adoption, and is not legitimately 
before the church for discussion. ... To enter upon a general discus- 
sion of the report while it is in this incomplete state would not be justice 
to the committee nor profitable to the church, as it would be necessary 



602 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

to go over the whole ground again. . . . We want the report consid- 
ered and the issue met on its merits, which can not be done now. . . . 
The work is incomplete and in the hands of a committee, and has not 
been considered by the General Assembly. Therefore the time for a 
discussion in the paper has not come. 

It probably would have been well, in order to remove all possible 
grounds of dissatisfaction or complaint, to have allowed those not 
in favor of revision to state their objections in the church paper, 
even before the report was submitted to the Assembly. There 
would have been no injustice to the committees in this. They 
would have been helped rather than hindered by the suggestions 
which such a discussion would have called forth. There was really 
no danger of any angry or distracting controversy. A full and im- 
partial discussion at that time, while it could not have changed the 
final result, would have satisfied the few who were opposed to the 
new book. But these few really had no serious ground of com- 
plaint. The committees called for suggestions from the whole 
church, giving every man in the denomination a chance to file his 
objection or record his protest; and in the Assembly, and afterward 
in the papers and before the presbyteries, the fullest possible oppor- 
tunity for discussion was afforded. The Assembly of 1882 made 
considerable changes in the proposed book, and then referred it to 
the presbyteries, requiring them to accept or reject the new Confes- 
sion as a whole. 

There were some who thought final action should have been 
deferred another year, to give time for further suggestions and 
amendments, but the majority thought otherwise. A large por- 
tion of the new book is the work of the Assembly of 1882. As a 
system it differs from the old in nothing but its omissions. It con- 
tains no new doctrines. No original Cumberland Presbyterian 
could reject the new Confession. 

Improvements, which an anti-revisionist is obliged to admit, 
are found in very many places. For example the order of subjects 
in our first Confession is Justification, Adoption, Sanctification, 
Saving Faith, Repentance; while the order in the revised book is 
Repentance, Faith, Justification, Regeneration, Adoption, Sanctifi- 
cation. Every old-time Cumberland Presbyterian recognizes the 



Chapter XLVII.] REVISION. 603 

landmarks of our theological system in the second arrangement, 
but not in the first. Throughout the new book, harmony with our 
pulpit theology is clearly discernible. 

The only just grounds for complaint against the new book are 
in its omissions, and in its loose and hastily written portions. 
After all, Confessions of Faith are smaller, far smaller matters now 
than they were in the preceding century. The Bible, studied as a 
book, without reference to creeds, is very different from the Bible 
studied in the light of a particular creed. The Bible as a book is 
what our International Sabbath-school System puts us all to study- 
ing. The Bible as a book will, it is hoped, one day be studied in 
all our theological schools. It is the utter abuse of creeds to use 
them as candles for studying the Scripture. They have their ap- 
propriate place, but that place is a very subordinate one. 

The report of the committees contained no list of proof-texts, 
and there is no record of such a list ever coming before the Assem- 
bly. These proof-texts were not, therefore, submitted to the pres- 
byteries, and are left by the committees just where they ought to 
be left, as mere suggestions and nothing more. They are helpful, 
and there their mission ends. So too the preface is properly left in 
the same loose connection with the creed. It is not and should not 
be a part of our doctrines. It was very properly never referred to 
the presbyteries, and contains historic statements which may be 
questioned without incurring the charge of heresy. Whether we 
think it good or bad, true or false, is a matter of no importance. 

One thing that did go down to the presbyteries and meet their 
approval, and now stands as a law of the church, was improperly 
or by oversight omitted from the stereotyped book, though it was 
in the earlier and cheaper edition. It is this: 

It being hereby distinctly understood and declared that those who 
have heretofore received and adopted the Confession of Faith approved 
by the General Assembly in 1829, and who prefer to adhere to the doc- 
trinal statements contained therein, are at liberty to do so. [First 
(printed) edition of new Confession, page 137. See also Assembly's 
Minutes, 1882, page 36.] 

This is the edition on which the presbyteries acted. This item, 
went far toward satisfying the anti-revisionists. 






604 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

The presbyteries voted almost unanimously in favor of the 
adoption of this new creed. There has been nothing like this 
unanimity in all ecclesiastical history. It amazed and silenced 
those who were opposed to revision. Most of these determined at 
once to acquiesce. A few may still be unhappy about it, but even 
they are bound to admit that the new creed is by no means what 
they apprehended that it would prove to be. 

After Paul came as an appendix to the apostleship, God sent 
Peter (one of the fathers) to write a few words, in his old age, to 
let the churches know that he indorsed what this fiery apostle to 
the Gentiles had taught in his epistles. So, in 1883, God in his 
goodness allowed John 1^. Dillard, who was a full-grown man be- 
fore our church was. organized, in 1810, and who was a companion 
in the gospel with all the first Cumberland Presbyterian ministers, 
to speak in terms of approval of the doctrinal teachings and the 
spirit of the church in this generation. He not only saw and read 
the new creed, but expressed himself as well pleased with it. It is 
not likely that such an old watch-dog of our orthodoxy could be 
deceived. 

TEMPERANCE. 

Among the items taken down by the author of this history 
from the lips of the Rev. Thomas Calhoun, in 1845, was tne fol- 
lowing: "Samuel King was the first man I ever heard come out 
publicly against even the moderate use of whisky. He refused to 
ask a blessing at a public dinner because the table had whisky 
on it." In the Minutes of Elk Presbytery for April, 1816, page 
21, Vol. I., are resolutions pledging all the members to total absti- 
nence, and binding them to enforce this rule to the utmost among 
their people, and wherever else their authority or influence ex- 
tended. 

Our church papers have all been agreed in their opposition to 
intemperance and the whisky traffic. Whatever else they may 
have differed about, they all have spoken with one voice on this 
subject. It would be hard to determine which of our one hundred 
editors has been the most outspoken against whisky and in favor 
of temperance. Those now in the editorial work are all earnest 
advocates of total abstinence and prohibition, but they are not 



Chapter XL VII.] TEMPERANCE. 605 

more earnest or outspoken on this subject than was David Lowry, 
who belonged to the first editorial corps of our first church news- 
paper. 

The Rev. Le Roy Woods gave in the Cumberland Presbyterian 
the following reasons for going to the legislature of Indiana, 
in 1855: 

The facts in the case are these. I had given up my place as pub- 
lishing agent, and had taken a very active part in the temperance cause, 
which has agitated our State from one end to the other. I was a mem- 
ber of the State convention, which resolved to ignore all party ques- 
tions and make the passage of a prohibitory law the issue at the polls. 
I had advocated the same in a convention in our own county, and 
strongly advocated the nomination of a temperance ticket for the county 
in the event of the politicians refusing to do so. They did refuse, and 
we had no alternative left us but to have our county represented by 
men opposed to our whole temperance scheme, or nominate a ticket of 
our own. This we determined to do. When we came to look over 
the ground and see the difficulty, we had some trouble in finding men 
who would assume the responsibility of pleading the claims of our 
cause before the public. In this dilemma the convention, without a 
single dissenting voice, demanded of me that I should accept the nom- 
ination and make the canvass. No one but myself knows the struggle 
which it cost me to obtain my own consent. Nothing but my deep 
solicitude for the cause of temperance, and a sense of duty to our com- 
mon country, could have induced me to accept this expression of confi- 
dence on the part of so many of my fellow-citizens. On the day of 
my nomination, and throughout the whole canvass, I publicly refused to 
be a politician. *I made the race exclusively on the question of " Search 
and Seizure," no other question was discussed. 

He was elected on this prohibition ticket, called the "Search 
and Seizure ' ' ticket. 

When our church had but three presbyteries, and drinking 
whisky was as common as drinking coffee is now, each of these 
presbyteries declared it to be an offense worthy of discipline to 
make, sell, give away, or drink intoxicating liquors. Our church 
courts have kept up these utterances, only making them stronger 
and stronger as the years have passed away. All of our recent 
Assemblies have declared it to be the duty of Cumberland Presby- 
terians to co-operate in all lawful efforts to secure the prohibition 



606 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

of the manufacture and sale of intoxicating drinks. The Assem- 
bly of 1 85 1 passed the following resolution: 

Resolved, That it is the sense of this General Assembly that to 
make, buy, sell, or use as a beverage any spirituous or intoxicating 
liquors is an immorality; that it is not only unauthorized, but forbidden 
by the word of God. We do, therefore, recommend to the several 
churches under our care, to abstain wholly from their use. 

The Assembly of 1853 adopted a report which, after setting 
forth the evils of intemperance, asks: 

What is the duty of the church relative to this important question? 
We believe there is but one answer. It is the duty of the Christian to 
use every reasonable effort within his power to advance the glorious 
cause of temperance. If he fails in this he fails in one material branch 
of his duty, and will be held accountable for the failure. We regard 
the efforts now being made in the temperance cause as requiring the 
co-operation of the church, ... as one of the means of reforming and 
finally converting the world; and the failure of church members thus 
to co-operate amounts to a sin against light and knowledge. So far as 
our information extends, this branch of Zion is discharging her duty in 
this great work with commendable zeal. 

The efforts which Christians should use for the furtherance of this 
work consist not alone in abstaining from the use of ardent spirits, and 
being Washingtonians or Sons of Temperance. The true and devoted 
advocate of temperance will labor for the enactment of such laws as 
will prohibit the making, vending, or use of intoxicating liquors. 

To this preamble the following resolutions were added: 

1. It is incompatible with the character of a Christian, and particu- 
larly the Christian character of a Cumberland Presbyterian, to use or in 
any way to encourage the use of ardent spirits as a beverage. 

2. If he fails to use reasonable efforts to bring about, by legal enact- 
ments or otherwise, an entire prohibition of the liquor traffic, he acts 
beneath his duty as a professor of religion. 

3. Christians not only have duties to discharge to the church and 
the world as Christians, but also to their government and society as 
citizens. 

4. In discharging the latter duty they should be governed by the 
broad principles of Christian philanthropy, advocating the extermina- 
tion of alcoholic drinks ... by the enactment of prohibitory laws for 
that purpose, with such penalties as will cause those laws to be re- 
spected and enforced. 



Chapter XL VII.] TEMPERANCE. 607 

With some slight verbal changes, this preamble, accompanied 
by the same resolutions, was adopted by the Assembly of 1854. 

Time after time the Assembly and subordinate judicatures have 
called on all our ministers and churches to pray for the overthrow 
of the whisky traffic. Sunday-schools have been again and ao-ain 
urged to teach the doctrine of total abstinence and prohibition. 
Men who sell intoxicating spirits have repeatedly been declared" 
unfit for church membership. 

In 1876 the managers of the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibi- 
tion made provisions to allow whisky to be sold on their grounds. 
Our General Assembly that year, by a unanimous rising vote, pro- 
tested against this action as ' ' a flagrant violation of the moral and 
Christian sense of the American people, ' ' and appealed to the Cen- 
tennial Board of Finance to revoke this license, adopting the fol- 
lowing resolution: 

Resolved, That we do hereby earnestly recommend that all the 
members of the Cumberland Presbyterian church refrain from patron- 
izing the Centennial Exhibition until the ruling of the Board of Man- 
agers be changed on this subject. 

The Assembly of 1884 appointed "a day of special prayer for 
divine guidance in the selection of discreet and godly men by the 
great political parties" in the national conventions then approach- 
ing. It urged' that greater prominence should be given to the 
subject of temperance in Sunday-schools, and that temperance 
meetings for children should be held. It indorsed the various- 
societies organized to promote the temperance reform, enumerating 
1 'the several State Temperance Alliances, the Woman's Christian 
Temperance Union, the Order of Good Templars, the Young 
Men's Christian Association, and the Band of Hope." 

In 1885 the Assembly declared u the manufacture or sale of 
ardent spirits as a beverage inconsistent with Christian character 
and the high relation of church membership;" and in 1886 the 
cause of prohibition was indorsed in this strong language: 

, Recognizing the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors as the 
source of very great evils, we re-affirm our unflinching devotion to the 
cause of absolute constitutional prohibition, and we are glad to note 
that other ecclesiastical bodies are taking high ground on this subject. 



608 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

The Assembly of 1887 declared "that the failure or refusal of 
any professed follower of our divine Master to use his profession in 
favor of, to pray for, labor for, and vote for such legislation as will 
free the country and God's church from this drink curse, is incon- 
sistent with the teachings of holy Scripture and the example of our 
Savior." 

David Lowry, in an article published not long before his death, 
adduces an array of testimonies to prove that the use of fermented 
wines was forbidden at the Jewish passovers, 1 presenting Jewish 
instructions about the time and the manner in which the pass- 
over wine should be prepared, and denying that Christ made fer- 
mented wine or wine that would intoxicate. He showed that all 
the direct utterances of the Bible on this subject condemn strong 
drink in the most unmistakable terms. Incidental mention of har- 
lots and of thieves there are, in which the sacred writer does not 
stop to express condemnation, but in every direct declaration con- 
cerning their character and their deeds they are condemned. Of the 
same nature are all the Bible utterances about strong drink. Many 
incidental mentions of it we find, but in eveiy case where its char- 
acter is directly pronounced upon, it is either condemned or pro- 
hibited, or both. All persons are forbidden even to look upon the 
wine when it is red. 2 We are forbidden to induct into the ministry 
any man who is given to wine-drinking. 3 Such is the tone gen- 
erally of the direct declarations of God's word. 

By the grace of God the sober people of the land are determined 
to give the matter no rest until the manufacture and sale of intox- 
icating drinks are as thoroughly prohibited by law as are theft and 
murder. 

The following anecdote concerning the Rev. J. M. Berry, which 
appeared in one of our church papers, is given as a fitting close for 
this chapter: 

Abraham Lincoln was once the partner in a little store with 
William Berry, the Rev. J. M. Berry's son— his prodigal son. After 
Lincoln had retired from the "store," and had gained considerable 

1 It was an offense punishable by death to be found with leaven in the house. 
Leavened or fermented wine would have incurred that penalty. — Ex. xii. 19. 
3 Prov. xxiii. 31, 32. 3i Tim. iii. 3; Titus i. 7, 8. 



Chapter XLVIL] 



Temperance. 



609 



notoriety as a lawyer, some women banded together and broke up a 
grog-shop which had become an intolerable nuisance to the neigh- 
borhood. They knocked in the heads of the barrels and kegs, and 
smashed the bottles. When the dram seller threatened them with the 
law or violence, one of the women said to him: "Be quiet for we 
are determined to knock in the head of every thing that has liquor in 
it; and your own head is in danger." Lincoln volunteered to plead the 
cause of the women. The case was tried in the town where the Rev. 
J. M. Berry lived. A large crowd had collected to hear the pleading. 
The evils of intemperance were so eloquently presented as to touch 
most of those present, and many were bathed in tears. " There," said 
the speaker, pointing his long bony finger toward Mr. Berry, "is the 
man who years ago was instrumental in convincing me of the evils of 
trafficking in and using ardent spirits." Tears ran in streams down the 
aged preacher's cheeks. His thoughts at that time were probably 
something like this: "O my ruined boy! I lost you, but saved your 
partner. Thank God my labors were not in vain in the Lord." 

39 



6io Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 



CHAPTER XLVIII. 



NEW FIELDS, EVANGELISTS, PROGRESS, REFLECTIONS. 

Springs of life in desert places 

Shall thy God unseal for thee; 
Quickening and reviving graces, 

Dew-like, healing, sweet and free. 

—F. R. H. 

PIONEER missionaries of the Cumberland Presbyterian church 
have penetrated to almost all the Territories of the West. The 
lack of an adequate home mission fund has crippled the efforts of 
our people to establish congregations, but in spite of the lack of 
strong support from the churches in the older States, a good work 
has been done in many towns and country places in these new 
fields. 

COLORADO. 

As soon as the Territory of Colorado was open to white settlers, 
Cumberland Presbyterian preachers and private members joined 
the tide of emigration that flowed thither. The Rev. B. F. Moore 
was perhaps the first of our preachers to make his home in this 
Territory. He was there and at work when the Rev. J. Cal. Lit- 
trell and the Rev. S. D. Givens arrived in the fall of 1870. The 
Board of Missions rendered some little assistance to L,ittrell and 
Givens, wdiose work in that Territory was crowned with great 
success. 

In November, 1870, these three ministers, Moore, L/ittrell, and 
Givens, organized the Rocky Mountain Presbytery. 1 This presby- 
tery had at first but one congregation under its care. The mission- 
aries traveled from house to house, laboring among the families of 
the emigrants, and holding meetings wherever they could gather 
the people together. In 1872 there were six congregations, one 
hundred and nine members, and one hundred and forty-eight 

1 Sketch furnished by stated clerk, the Rev. W. W. M. Barber. 



Chapter XLVIII.] NEW FlELDS. 6ll 

pupils in the Sunday-schools. The church property in the pres- 
byterial bounds was valued at five thousand dollars. In the year 
ending May, 1874, Littrell traveled over five thousand miles, and 
preached one hundred and eighty-seven times. There were four 
congregations in his field of labor. 

The Rev. T. H. Henderson was laboring as missionary at Col- 
orado Springs in 1874. In 1875 the Board reported that this mis- 
sion had been taken under its care. The congregation then had a 
' ' good church edifice finished and paid for, and a small organiza- 
tion of energetic and liberal members." The Rev. P. A. Rice, who 
succeeded the Rev. T. H. Henderson as missionary, had also re- 
signed. Afterward the Rev. J. H. Steele, the Rev. J. Cal. Littrell, 
and the Rev. W. A. Hyde successively served as missionaries here. 
To the Assembly of 1881 the board announced that this mission 
had been declared self-sustaining. 

The city of Pueblo was a point of interest to Cumberland Pres- 
byterian pioneers, and a good beginning in denominational work 
was made there mainly by private enterprise. Then the congrega- 
tion was adopted by our board as a mission. A comfortable church 
was built and paid for. When the Board of Missions made its re- 
port in 1886, this congregation had a membership of twenty, and 
church property valued at $3,500. 

NEW MEXICO. 

In 1875 that zealous pioneer, the Rev. J. Cal. Littrell, published 
the following account of an exploring trip made by him in New 
Mexico: 

Through the kindness of my congregations and friends at home, I 
was granted time to visit Colfax County, New Mexico. I had been 
for over a year receiving earnest requests from the people there, urging 
me to visit them and preach to them. This I have done during the past 
twenty -five days. I found large communities gospel hungry. They 
have no preaching, no Sunday-schools, no assembling together on the 
Sabbath day. I preached where the gospel had never been proclaimed 
before. Some had not heard a sermon for more than ten years. We 
were blessed with gracious outpourings of the Holy Spirit. Christians 
were made happy in a Savior's love afresh, and some for the first time 
learned the joy of believing. Men of the world wept and trembled. 
There was much earnest pleading for help. Many said: "Won't you 



6i2 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

come and preach to us, or send some one ? We are poor, but we will 
do all we can." I thank God that I went, although it was a hard trip, 
and I received less than my expenses. I have the assurance that I did 
them some good. I met several Cumberland Presbyterians. O that 
the missionary spirit would fire some faithful and efficient man to go 
into that field! It is extensive, and white unto harvest. I traveled four 
hundred and fifteen miles, and received one dollar and fifteen cents. 

No attempt has been made to plant Cumberland Presbyterian 
churches in New Mexico. 

NEBRASKA. 

Before Nebraska was a home for white settlers it was part of 
the great highway to the Pacific. Fur traders, soldiers, daring 
adventurers, and miners had their regular routes of travel across 
its wide plains, and their posts for supplies along its water-courses. 
Along with these travelers were some of our own people, as well as 
along with the very first permanent settlers on this soil. L,ike 
most pioneers, however, they published no history of their labors. 
It is by no means to be presumed that their lives were destitute of 
adventures. Indian difficulties and Indian massacres we know 
there were, and questions growing out of some of these came up 
for discussion and decision before the national authorities ten years 
after Nebraska became an organized Territory of the United States. 

When all became peaceful, it did not follow that Indians were 
no longer Indians. It is said that when the kind-hearted Quakers 
of Philadelphia heard that the Nebraska squaws wore no bonnets, 
they immediately sent an ample supply. On the reception of 
these, the Indian braves held a council and decided to use the bon- 
nets for u crow cushions," bound upon the persons not of the 
squaws, but the warriors! 

The men who organized and managed the celebrated express 
company for overland passengers and freight from the * ( States ' ' to 
California before the war, were members of the Cumberland Pres- 
byterian church. The history of this enterprise with the biog- 
raphies of the men who planned it and carried it out, would, if 
published, form a volume of thrilling interest. Large-hearted, 
brave, adventurous men they were, and all the West teems with 
stories of their wonderful energy and liberality. This company 
had one of its important stations in what is now Nebraska City. 



Chapter XLVIIL] NEW FIELDS. 613 

The following account of the introduction of the Cumberland 
Presbyterian church in the Territory of Nebraska was written in 
1868 by the Rev. R. S. Reed, then pastor at Nebraska City, and 
published in the Ba7iner of Peace : 

I am not positive, but believe that the first sermon by a Cumberland 
Presbyterian minister in Nebraska was preached in the spring of 
1S58 or 1859, by the Rev. Robert Renick, of Missouri. It occurred in 
this way: Alexander Majors, Esq., formerly of Independence, Missouri, 
and for many years a ruling elder m our church at that place, had set- 
tled in Nebraska City, and was extensively engaged in the freighting 
business. The rules by which he governed his teamsters — usually a 
rough class of men — were peculiar to himself, but of very extensive 
notoriety in this Western country. Among other wholesome require- 
ments, drunkenness and profanity were positively prohibited under 
penalty of immediate dismission from service without pay. These rules 
were strictly enforced; and, in addition, it was Mr. Majors' custom to 
rest on the Sabbath, and hold prayer-meetings with his men. These 
meetings he usually conducted himself, often delivering extempore ex- 
hortations, in which he was not a little gifted. Sometimes a minister 
in the company preached, and in this way it is possible that some Cum- 
berland Presbyterian minister preached in this Territory before Father 
Renick. 

A wave of moral influence was started through the untiring efforts 
of Mr. Majors, whose effects will be seen and felt in eternity. But 
few men, if any, have such moral power in this country as that which 
he exercised. Would to God we had many more such elders. About 
the time to which reference has been made, he induced Father Renick 
to come to Nebraska City, paying him a good salary out of his own 
pocket to preach to his men while in camp. Father Renick came and 
preached for some months in a beautiful grove adjoining the city and 
known as the "Outfitting Grounds." Mr. Majors expected to secure 
the organization of a Cumberland Presbyterian church, but Father 
Renick returned to Missouri, and the purpose was abandoned for the 
time. About this time one or two camp-meetings were held near this 
city by Mr. Majors, and perhaps some other Cumberland Presbyterians, 
in connection with brethren of the Methodist Episcopal church. Gra- 
cious revivals were enjoyed at these meetings, and many sinners were 
converted. 

The first Cumberland Presbyterian church organized in the Terri- 
tory of Nebraska was at Nebraska City. The great civil war, and espe- 
cially the troubles in Missouri consequent upon this war, had brought 
quite a large emigration to this city. Among these emigrants were 



614 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

quite a number of Cumberland Presbyterians and Southern Meth- 
odists, who were as sheep without a shepherd. Business had called 
Mr. Majors and a few others here prior to this. The most of these 
united, temporarily, with the Methodist Episcopal church; but such 
were the political influences brought to bear in this church and from 
the pulpit during the exciting times of war, that it was impossible for 
them to live in peace here. They accordingly quietly withdrew. It 
was then proposed to find a home in the Presbyterian church (O. S.). 
The Rev. J. G. Dalton, a worthy brother and member of the Lexington 
Presbytery of our church, being here at the time, did, by invitation, 
occupy the pulpit of that church for a few months. But such was the 
discourtesy with which the proposition to unite with that church was 
treated, that our brethren felt they could not find a congenial home with 
that people. 

It was, perhaps, about this time that the Rev. O. D. Allen, from 
Missouri, gathered up a few Cumberland Presbyterians in the neigh- 
borhood of Rock Bluff, about eighteen miles above Nebraska City, and 
preached for them for a time. About the same time, perhaps a little 
later, the Rev. Mr. Starnes, of Missouri, commenced operations near 
Brownsville, some thirty miles below Nebraska City. His labors have 
since resulted in the organization of a respectable congregation of Cum- 
berland Presbyterians. 

Our people at Nebraska City, driven from the Methodist Episcopal 
church, and denied sympathy and encouragement when they sought to 
unite with the Presbyterian church, were shut up to the necessity, as 
were our fathers, of an independent organization. Then the question 
came up, What kind of church should be organized — Cumberland 
Presbyterian, or Methodist Episcopal, South? The number of mem- 
bers was nearly equally divided between the two. The Rev. George 
W. Love, a minister in the latter church, very .generously proposed 
that all should unite in the organization of a Cumberland Presbyterian 
church. The Rev. C. B. Hodges, a Cumberland Presbyterian minister, 
was sent for, and, on the 16th day of July, 1S65, the organization was 
effected, and the names of fifty-four members were enrolled. Five 
elders were elected, and Mr. Love was selected pastor temporarily. He 
and Mr. Hodges alternately and conjointly occupied the pulpit until the 
fall of 1866, during which time two extensive revivals of religion were 
enjoyed, in which many souls were converted and added to the church. 
A large and flourishing Sabbath-school has been in successful operation 
ever since the organization of the church. 

On the 28th of October, 1866, I took charge of the church, devoting 
all my time to its interests. On the 15th of December, 1867, a new and 
beautiful brick edifice, built entirely by the liberality of our own church 



Chapter XLVIIL] NEW FIELDS. 615 

and some friends in the city, was dedicated. But many of our mem- 
bers from Missouri were here only temporarily, so that by the time we 
entered the new church, although about one hundred had been added 
since the organization, we were reduced to about fifty. Soon after 
entering the new church we were blessed with a powerful work of 
grace, and quite a number were added to the membership. 

A sketch written in 1886 by another faithful worker in this 
field gives some of the same facts, but in different connections: 

During the late civil war, many persons from Missouri and other 
border States came to Nebraska. Among these were some Cumber- 
land Presbyterians. Russell, Majors & Co., the noted overland freight- 
ers, had established their headquarters in Nebraska City. Mr. Majors, 
being a Cumberland Presbyterian, and well acquainted in Missouri, had 
induced some ministers of that denomination to locate here. Amono- 
these were Robert Renick, C. B. Hodges, James G. Dalton, and Martin 
Hughes. A large, two-story frame building had been erected by Mr. 
Majors for a store-room. This building was used also as a place of 
worship by the few scattered members of our church in the city. 

Here a series of meetings was held, resulting in a revival. Some 
time afterward it was decided to organize a church. On the 16th day 
of July, 1865, the first Cumberland Presbyterian church was organized 
by Rev. C. B. Hodges. The Rev. G. W. Love became pastor, but was 
soon followed by the Rev. C. B. Hodges, who was very efficient in 
building up the church during his six months' pastorate. 

In the spring of 1866, Rev. R. S. Reed, of Salem, Illinois, accepted 
a call from this church, and entered upon his work on the 28th of Octo- 
ber the same year. Under his management the church prospered 
greatly, both in its spiritual and financial interests. A beautiful house 
of worship was erected on the corner of Tenth and Laramie streets, 
and dedicated December, 1867. The work on this building was begun 
the first year of Mr. Reed's pastorate. In October, 1869, after three 
years of faithful service, he resigned. 

In November, 1869, the Rev. J. B. Green, of Kentucky, took charge 
of this church. During his pastorate, the work so well begun by his 
predecessor has gone steadily on. There has been no change of pastor 
since 1869. For a number of years this congregation has been on a 
sound financial basis, and out of debt. The Sunday-school was organ- 
ized in July, 1865, and has prospered from the first, doing a good work. 

Some time after the organization of the Nebraska City church, a 
congregation was organized near Brownsville, Nemaha County. After 
a few years it built a good brick house of worship. This church has 



616 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

had several pastors, and is now under the care of the Rev. B. J. John- 
son. Eight or ten years ago, a congregation, known as the Weeping 
Water church, was established in Cass County. Some of its members 
had been connected with the Nebraska City church. This congrega- 
tion has recently been merged into a new one, and is now known as the 
Factory ville church. A few years ago this church erected a neat frame 
meeting-house, and now holds services twice each Sabbath. The Rev. 
R. F. Powell is the pastor. 

Later a congregation, first known as Harmony, was formed six miles 
west of Nebraska City. This organization was finally moved to the 
village of Dunbar, and it is now known as the Dunbar church. Its 
members have built a substantial frame house, and services are held each 
Sabbath. The Rev. R. A. Williams is now its pastor. Two or three 
other smaller congregations have been organized more recently. 

All Nebraska was formerly included in the Leavenworth Presby- 
tery, and in the Missouri Synod. In 1873 Leavenworth Presbytery 
was divided and the Nebraska Presbytery formed. The first meeting 
of this new presbytery was held at Harmony church on the 6th day of 
March, 1873. Rev. J. B. Green was the first moderator. The following 
ministers composed the presbytery: B. J. Johnson, J. B. Green, I. Wayne 
Snovvden, J. C. Hamilton, and Amasa Rippetoe. Four congregations 
were represented at this meeting. 

The missionary operations in this State have been mainly supported 
by home contributions. But little help has ever been .received. The 
Board of Missions has never had a missionary or a mission in this State. 
Rev. R. F. Powell, under appointment from the board, labored for a 
few months, but his work was mostly confined to Kansas. The denom- 
ination has lost much in not giving more attention to this important 
territory. The Nebraska City congregation was never a mission church, 
but has been self-sustaining from its organization. 

At the Assembly of 1886, the Nebraska Presbytery reported six 
ordained ministers, thirteen churches, four hundred and seventy- 
eight members, and four hundred and eighty-eight pupils in the 
Sunday-schools. 

WASHINGTON TERRITORY. 

In 1872, the Rev. H. W. Eagan went to the new Territory of 
Washington. Without assistance from the Board of Missions he 
began his labors at the town of Walla Walla. With no house of 
worship, no organized congregation, and no private estate to rely 
on, he determined to cast himself upon the Lord for support, and 
give himself to the ministry among the pioneers. He preached 



Chapter XLVIII.] NEW FIELDS. 617 

faithfully, and God put it into the hearts of the people to furnish 
him a temporal support. A working congregation was gathered, 
and a good church house built and paid for. When this faithful 
pioneer was no longer able to meet the growing demands of the 
work, an appeal was made to the Board of Missions for assistance. 
In answer to this call, the Rev. W. W. Beck was, in 1886, com- 
missioned and sent to Walla Walla as missionary. To the General 
Assembly that year, this church reported sixty resident and sixty- 
six non-resident members, and church property valued at five thou- 
sand dollars. , 

The Rev. A. W. Sweeny has spent most of his life in the far 
West. In one of his letters, written in 1874, and published in the 
church paper, we get a glimpse of his work in Washington Terri- 
tory. Describing one of his meetings, he says: 

The Rev. H. W. Eagan, of Walla Walla, came on Monday. That 
night a large number of the anxious came forward. Some were con- 
verted every night during the week. The second Sabbath came. At 
night fifty-five came to the altar. We could not close the meeting. 
We were there the next Sabbath. At night forty-five were at the altar, 
and there were eleven professions. So we spent two weeks at that 
meeting. Certainly there had never been before, in this part of the 
country, such a deep religious interest felt. 

The same letter shows how these pioneer missionaries went forth, 
trusting God for a support. Mr. Sweeny says: 

The Rev. E. P. Henderson and myself visited Waitsburg and held 
a meeting, two years ago last September and October. He remained 
until spring with the little congregation which we organized here. I 
then took charge of it. I was alone, bishop, circuit rider, preacher, 
and exhorter. In the fall Brother Eagan came. God sent him. I gave 
him part of my field. Forty dollars a year was all the salary that he or 
I positively knew of. God has supported him. He has not lacked for 
any thing. The Rev. R. H. Wills came recently. I turned over to 
his support all but three of my contributing members of Waitsburg 
congregation. The way looks dark. What are we to do ? A question 
often asked, and easily answered. Go forward, trust in God, and he 
will open the way. The additions at our camp-meeting will make up 
my loss by dividing with Brother Wills. I am slowly learning to "have 
faith in God." At Brother Eagan's basket meeting with his country 
con execration there were nine additions. So you see we have encour- 
agement in this new country. God be praised! 



618 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

We now (1887) have in Washington Territory one presbytery, 
the Walla Walla, with twelve ordained preachers, four candidates 
for the ministry, eleven congregations, six hundred members, and 
five hundred pupils in the Sabbath-schools. 

There are some ministers and members of the Cumberland 
Presbyterian church in Montana Territory, but no presbytery has 
been formed. 

EVANGELISTS. 

In the last twenty years, not only in the Cumberland Presbyte- 
rian church, but throughout all Christendom, the work of evan- 
gelists, both lay and clerical, has been among the wonderful things 
connected with religious activity and development. We have had 
our full share of those remarkable preachers. There seems to be a 
special movement in this direction, brought about by the Spirit of 
the living God. While there have no doubt been abuses, yet the 
great harvest of souls among those who were ready to perish is far 
too precious to permit us to doubt that God is in this work. One 
thing of special value is the use which these evangelists make of 
the Scripture. This is true pre-eminently in the work of our own 
evangelists, the Rev. R. G. Pearson and Dixon C. Williams. 

One of our aged ministers once traveled some distance to attend 
the meetings of the Rev. R. J. Sims, another Cumberland Presby- 
terian evangelist. There was an immense congregation. The 
evangelist made a very simple, earnest address with no loud tones, 
violent gestures, or exciting appeals. The talk was conversa- 
tional, and in subdued accents. Then the speaker asked those 
occupying the four pews in front of the pulpit to vacate them, to 
accommodate the penitents. To the aged preacher, who sat behind 
the evangelist, this seemed a foolish proceeding. ' * Four seats in- 
deed ! ' ' thought he. l ( If one mourner comes forward it is more 
than I expect." The evangelist said: "Let all who want to be 
saved here to-day come quietly to these seats." In a few moments 
all the four seats were filled; then four more were called for and 
filled; then two more. The visiting preacher was amazed — almost 
frightened. He continued with that evangelist a week, and watched 
him closely, to find out how all this was accomplished. The first 
day and night he found that the evangelist spent about six hours 



Chapter XLVIII.J EVANGELISTS. 619 

alone in prayer, and that he gathered two or three chosen ones to 
join him in short, special prayers. This was the daily programme. 
The secret of his success was that God was with him. 

It is true that this evangelistic work puts into the hands of the 
pastors greatly increased labors in organizing and training converts. 
But this is not a valid objection. It would be inconsistent in par- 
ents to object to their children being converted in early life, because 
the duty of training the little believers rests upon fathers and 
mothers, and involves much prayer and patient labor; hardly less 
inconsistent is it for pastors to object to the sudden conversion of 
large numbers in their congregations. Would it be better to risk 
the eternal loss of all these souls than to have the pastor's labors 
and embarrassments multiplied ? 

In the Cumberland Presbyterian church this modern method of 
evangelistic work began in 1873. For several years our people had 
just one evangelist at large. He visited nearly all the States in 
which the church had a membership, spending twelve years in this 
work. His was purely a life of faith, so far as the support of his 
family was concerned. He had no assurance of compensation, no 
contract with man, and no private means of his own; but neither 
he nor his family suffered for any of the necessaries of life. Such 
a life of trust brings a laborer into closer relations with God than 
any other life. It by no means includes the neglect of teaching 
the people their duty about money. In 1880 the church had 
twelve of these evangelists at large — men who "reported only to 
God. ' ' This does not include ministers sent out by synods or pres- 
byteries. 

Lay evangelists were a part of the original machinery of the 
Cumberland Presbyterian church. At first these were selected and 
commissioned by the presbytery, choice being made of men who 
had shown some fitness for the work. Of late years this custom 
had fallen into desuetude. One little experiment on the old plan, 
which was made a few years ago by Bethel* Presbytery, in the 
Choctaw country, was thus described at the time by the Rev. W. 
S. L,angdon in the Banner of Peace : 

Some time since the Rev. I. Folsom furnished an account of the 
proceedings of Bethel Presbytery. The business was conducted in the 



62o Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

Choctaw language. It seems to have been a very spiritual meeting, and 
resulted in much immediate good. One item that I did not notice when 
I first read it, now strikes me more forcibly than any thing else in the 
record. This is probably because the subject is one that has occupied 
my thoughts a great deal recently. Here is the item : " During the 
meeting of the presbytery, loud Macedonian cries came up from differ- 
ent parts of the Nation. At first we were utterly at a loss to know what 
to do, as we had more fields already than we were able to supply, and 
as some of us were advanced in years, and were becoming infirm. For 
some time we remained silent, in deep, prayerful reflections. So, on the 
following day, after asking counsel of God, the presbytery determined 
to send forth the elders and deacons, and appoint exhorters to go and 
read the holy Scriptures to the people, sing and pray with them, and 
exhort in their meetings, until ministers could go round and baptize con- 
verts and organize them into churches according to the apostolic usage." 

Here, I think, we have a perfect copy of the "Apostolic usage." 
Our Indian brethren have taken a step in the right direction, and have 
set their white brethren an example that it would be well for them to 
consider. Has not the Christian church departed from the plan of 
ministerial labor and church extension devised by the great Head of 
the church ? 

For three hundred years the disciples and their successors operated 
upon a plan similar to that set forth in this extract from the proceedings 
of this Choctaw Presbytery. They went forth and preached, organizing 
churches, administering sacraments, and ordaining elders. Then they 
proceeded to some other place, leaving the new church members to 
conduct their own services. These services were very different from 
those held in the churches in this day. Then they met to study the 
Scriptures and learn what their duties were, and inquire what was the 
will of God concerning them. Their meetings were religious sociables. 
It was the privilege of every member to take part, under the rules pre- 
scribed by the apostles. Once in a while some of the ministers came 
round, and corrected any errors into which the converts had fallen, 
preaching to them and strengthening them by words of counsel. The 
people were thus aided and encouraged in their religious work, and they 
helped the preacher in his. 

The error of the ministry for fifteen hundred years has been that it 
has taken the work of Bible-readings, religious discussion, and personal 
exhortation too much out of the hands of the people, and substituted 
sermons instead. 

Lay preaching, but without presbyterial appointments, has been 
a prominent part of the evangelistic work of recent years. Among 



Chapter XL VIII.] PROGRESS. 62 1 

our own lay preachers are Dixon C. Williams and General A. P. 
Stewart. General Stewart has never abandoned his secular busi- 
ness to go out as evangelist, but has preached a great deal. While 
he was chancellor of the University of Mississippi, he spent 
most of his vacations holding meetings, and these meetings were 
owned of Heaven, resulting in the conversion of many souls. Mr. 
Williams, familiarly known as "Dixie" Williams, gave up his 
business and his pleasant home, leaving his young wife and little 
children behind him, in order to devote his whole strength to 
preaching. 

One of our old preachers, who knew Williams from childhood, 
speaks thus of him and his work: 

When Dixie first became a church member, his life was a disap- 
pointment. He is of the stock to which Thomas Calhoun belonged, 
and I hoped he would become a preacher. I was troubled to find 
his life not what I hoped for. Then Hammond came along, and Dixie 
got worked over, and went to holding meetings in the by-ways and 
hedges. I went to hear him. I had been all the time thinking of my 
former disappointment. He rose, and, with deep feeling, made confes- 
sion about past failures, and declared his fixed determination, by God's 
grace to be what he professed — out and out the Lord's. He is doing 
just that, and the Lord is using him. It is a curious fact that both in 
the early and the recent history of Cumberland Presbyterians, our most 
successful preachers have been Christians worked over. 

Many of our evangelists prefer the plan of ' ' reporting only to 
God," and never publish any accounts of their meetings. It is, 
therefore, not easy to obtain details of their work. 

OUR DENOMINATIONAL PROGRESS. 

In 1810 there were three Cumberland Presbyterian preachers ; 
no churches. In 1812 we had eight preachers and thirty-three 
congregations. In 1829 there were eighteen presbyteries, and a 
General Assembly was organized. The number of ministers and 
churches at that time is unknown. In 1842 there were fifty-three 
presbyteries; other statistics unknown. In i860 the church had 
ninety-seven presbyteries, and not less than fifteen chartered col- 
leges. The total membership was estimated at one hundred thou- 
sand, twenty thousand of whom were colored people. In 1887, 



622 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

notwithstanding the loss of all its colored members and ministers, 
the church had one hundred and nineteen presbyteries, fifteen hun- 
dred and sixty-three ministers, two thousand five hundred and forty 
congregations, and over a hundred and forty-five thousand members. 

The small number of candidates for the ministry and licentiates 
— less than one third the number of ordained ministers — is a dis- 
couraging feature in our recent denominational statistics. The old- 
time plan of going to God with fasting and prayer, and asking him 
to call more men to the work of the ministry should be revived. 
There was a time when parents solemnly asked the Lord to lead 
their own sons into this sacred calling. It would be well if such 
personal prayers were still daily offered by parents. In nearly 
every thing else our progress is most hopeful. In giving money 
systematically to missions and other church work there is steady 
and encouraging growth. In a few years more, at the present rate 
of advancement, our people will not be ashamed of financial com- 
parisons. There is a heresy of the pocket and the life which is worse 
than heresy in the creed. The Moravians, it is said, are the freest 
of all people from this practical heresy — this financial disloyalty to 
Jesus. It would be well if a good large Moravian element could 
enter into our membership. 

A most hopeful sign of progress is the increasing number of 
regular pastors. A far larger proportion of our congregations now 
have permanently settled ministers, giving their whole time to the 
work, than at any former period. Another most potent auxiliary 
to church progress is the very large circulation of the church paper. 
Never before was so large a number of our members reached through 
our own weekly organ. If its subscription extended to every family 
in the church, all our congregations and all our enterprises would 
be quickened into new life. 

Another auxiliary to this progress is the improved condition of 
our theological school. The encouraging success of the endow- 
ing agent gives promise that this school will soon be furnished with 
a full faculty, and equipped with all needed facilities for its work. 
When this is done, will not Dr. Beard bend over the battlements 
of heaven and weep tears of rapture over the realization of his 
hopes and the answer to his prayers ? 



Chapter XLVIIL] REFLECTIONS. 623 

Some comfort in our deficiencies and hope for our future growth 
may be derived from comparisons. The Presbyterian church in 
America in 18 19 was about one hundred and fourteen years old — 
that is, about thirty-seven years older than ours is to-day. At that 
date it had, in all America, eleven synods and fifty-three presbyte- 
ries. It had no Board of Publication and no Board of Foreign 
Missions. Its Board of Domestic Missions was only two years old. 
It is true that this slow progress may have been caused in part by 
the revolutionary war, and adverse influences in colonial times; 
but there were difficulties and hindrances in the early days of the 
Cumberland Presbyterian church scarcely less embarrassing. 

In a letter written by Rev. John Iy. Dillard, in 1883, when he 
was over ninety years old, he says. ' ' I think the outlook of the Cum- 
berland Presbyterian church is very bright. I think increasing 
attention is paid to experimental and spiritual religion. So far as 
I can learn the facts, God is greatly blessing the work of our min- 
istry." On the subject of doctrines, also, this veteran gives utter- 
ance to the belief that our people are maintaining the original 
purity and soundness of the faith. 

We have a far larger number of real scholars now than ever 
before; but our spirituality will not stand comparison with that 
which once made all our pulpits a blaze of .fire. A young preacher, 
talking recently to one of our old men, used something like these 
words: ( ' Doctor, how is it that so few of our preachers ever have any 
earnest, spiritual conversations with each other. You and Dr. M. 
are about the only ministers I think of now who ever seem to de- 
sire such conversation. ' ' All this was vastly different once. John 
Barnett used to say that he made it an invariable rule to speak at 
least a few words for Jesus in every conversation he held with his 
fellow-men. Something for Jesus, some little word for eternity in 
every conversation, every letter, every visit, would make a vast dif- 
ference in the aggregate influence of a life-time. 

GENERAL REFLECTIONS. 

In preparing such a history as this, an author necessarily studies 
many subjects which he can not discuss in his book. The impres- 
sion on his own mind is far broader and deeper than that which 



624 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

lie can convey to his readers. Some few thoughts growing out 
of these unrecorded impressions are now to be presented. Our 
people will perhaps be startled by the declaration that Ewing, 
King, and McAdow were not the first Cumberland Presbyterians. 
Yet in a very important sense this declaration is true. Every sa- 
cred principle, for which the men of 1800 struggled and suffered, 
had been struggled for and suffered for in the Presbyterian church 
of Scotland before any white man's cabin stood on the soil of 
Tennessee. 

The study of Hetherington is like reading over again the his- 
tory of McGready's difficulties. It was the injected element, thrust 
by the State into the true Presbyterian church, which opposed re- 
vivals, which objected to laymen leading in prayer, which tram- 
pled down the rights of presbyteries, as Lyle's synodical commis- 
sion did. It was the same old struggle, when field meetings in 
Kentucky took on the form they bore so long ago in the land of 
our forefathers. The same old struggle between a hide-bound 
fatality and a liberalized Calvinism had sprung up in almost every 
revival the Presbyterians of past generations ever had. The same 
struggle to reach the perishing masses, without being held back by 
conditional red tape, had involved revival Presbyterians in contro- 
versies long before the Cumberland Presbyterian church was born. 

Oar church was raised up to be the conservator of evangelical, 
liberal Presbyterianism. 

The first Cumberland Presbyterian preachers all belonged to 
the Scotch-Irish race. They were soldiers' sons, ecclesiastically, 
and they felt bound to walk erect, but none the less were they gen- 
uine Presbyterians. Their true kinsmen, ecclesiastically, must 
ever be sought in the liberal party of the Presbyterian church. 
There have always been two schools or shades of doctrine among 
Calvinists. Of later years there are many minor shades, but even 
in the Westminster Assembly there were two shades of doctrine. 
Our doctrines are no new element in Presbyterianism. There has 
been a scarlet thread of the same sort running through the whole 
woof from the first. The doctrine of grace, a belief in the divine 
influence of the Holy Spirit extending to all hearts, and the divine 
longing for the salvation of all lost sinners, has in every age been 



Chapter XLVIIL] REFLECTIONS. 625 

found in the church. When liberal Calvinists work in revivals, 
they become practically Cumberland Presbyterians. We have not 
even added any new measures, except it be camp-meetin.gs. Itin- 
erant evangelism, and even lay evangelism were among the earliest 
measures adopted by the revival party in the Scotch Presbyterian 
church. 

Our church is a conservator of the best and holiest elements of 
revival Presby terianism. The mother church is our debtor in these 
things. We are her debtor, too, in many things. From the lib- 
eral element in her doctrines our theology is derived — the Bible 
S)'-stem, which makes salvation the gift of God, while it makes 
death the wages of sin. We are indebted to her for our whole 
system of church government, and for that revival policy which 
rests on God's truth and God's Holy Spirit given in answer to 
prayer, and not on any human device. We are also indebted to 
her for the system of settled pastorates. Though it was impossible 
for our preachers and congregations to adopt this system at first, 
we have ever clung to it in theory, and are now struggling to estab- 
lish it throughout the denomination. 

We owe the mother church a large debt also in the matter of 
ministerial education. Even the abuse and misrepresentations of 
our methods and policy by some of her writers did us great service. 
That some of our presbyteries had drifted into laxness can not be 
called in question, but the worthy example of the Presbyterian 
church through her whole history has all the while been calling us 
to higher things. Pier schools and her literature have been trumpet 
voices in our hearing. Above all else her theological schools have 
been precious examples to our people. Cumberland Presbyterians, 
in their efforts to make their seminary all that it should be, find 
great help in the history of similar institutions built by Presbyte- 
rians. When our young men have sought better facilities than our 
own school could furnish, they have nearly always gone to the 
schools of liberal Calvinists — seldom or never to those of the Meth- 
odists. The number of such young men has been very large. 

Our natural and historic affinities are with the Reformed churches. 
We have taken our place in the Presbyterian Alliance; now, let us 
maintain it. If there are driftings in another direction they prom- 
40 



626 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

ise no good to our cause. Let us hold to our anchorage. Let us 
cling to the system of doctrine which has been so blessed of Heaven 
in our denominational career. Let us have done with the battles 
about decrees. Fatality is nowhere preached now. There is no 
use in forever fighting it. Organization, drill, work, missions, 
progress, souls immortal, are the prizes now to be struggled for; 
and in most of this work the Presbyterian church will furnish 
models for our imitation. 



Chapter XLIX.j ANECDOTES. 627 



CHAPTER XLIX. 



ANECDOTES. 

Be noble ! and the nobleness that lies 
In other men, sleeping, but never dead, 
Will rise in majesty to meet thine own. 

— Lowell. 

THE sources from which these anecdotes are derived are the 
church papers, and manuscript accounts written by eye-wit- 
nesses. The incidents described in the manuscripts are so numer- 
ous that it is impossible to put them all in this short chapter. 
Selections have been made of such only as give the greatest prom- 
ise of usefulness. These anecdotes belong to all periods of the 
church's history. We begin the list with those dating farthest 
back, but are not careful to preserve any exact chronological order 
afterward. 

ANECDOTE OF MRS. SAMUEL KING. 

The wife of Rev. Samuel King was a daughter of Joseph Dixon, 
of the Presbyterian church. Her son, the Rev. R. D. King, pub- 
lished the following anecdote of his mother. The scene of this 
incident was Mrs. King's girlhood's home, in the wilds of Ten- 
nessee. The people were exposed to attacks from hostile savages, 
and every settlement had its fort: 

On one occasion, early in the morning, something attracted Mr. 
Dixon's attention in the direction of the fort to which he belonged. 
He immediately took his rifle in his hand, and cautiously proceeded 
about one hundred or one hundred and fifty yards from the door of his 
cabin. His manner was so unusual as to attract little Anna's attention. 
She stood in the door watching her father with a throbbing heart, 
though she knew not why. Suddenly a band of savage warriors 
sprang from where they had been concealed, and, in a moment, Joseph 
Dixon lay a corpse. 

The savages, with hideous yells, rushed for the house. Anna's only 
safety now lay in flight. She determined to reach the fort, which was 



628 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

six miles distant. With a sagacity and determination that far surpassed 
her years, she commenced her flight. Soon she heard the band of sav- 
ages yelling behind her; but she evaded them, and after a while all but 
one of the Indians ceased their pursuit. The race between the two at 
last became a silent race for life, in which a child in her twelfth year 
fled from a young athletic warrior. Often the blood-thirsty pursuer 
would hurl his tomahawk with all his power, at his intended victim; yet 
each time it fell harmless, not at her feet, but far beyond her. 

As they approached the fort, the man who was on guard saw the 
race and threw open the gate. Just as the little girl sprang in, the 
cruel and determined savage poised himself steadily, and as the last 
fearful act of his life, hurled his tomahawk at her as she lay fainting 
from exhaustion. But, as before, the weapon missed its aim, and fell 
far beyond her. At the report of the sentinel's rifle, the pursuer fell 
dead twenty or twenty-five steps from the gate of the fort. 

A TIMELY ARRIVAL. 

The Rev. Le Roy Woods published the following incident con- 
nected with the history of the church in Pennsylvania: 

Morgan's health, never very robust, had, by travel and incessant 
labor, become very much impaired, and he had arranged to leave Penn- 
sylvania for the South at the close of the Waynesburg meeting. Aston 
remained in Washington County. This would leave Bryan alone. De- 
cember had come, the cold was becoming intense, and Morgan had to 
leave. The hearts of these two men, Morgan and Bryan, had become 
knit together as the hearts of Jonathan and David. The idea of being 
separated, especially at this time, was very painful. It had been 
arranged that they should spend the night together at the house of a 
Mr. Jennings, one mile out of Waynesburg, and that one of them 
should preach in this private residence. The religious interest was still 
very deep, and at an early hour the house was filled. Every room was 
crowded; the hall and the stairway were packed with people, anxious 
to hear. Morgan was too ill to sit up, and was compelled to leave the 
room, and lie on a bed up-stairs. Bryan was expected to preach. 

Just before service began a stranger came to the gate. His clothing 
and appearance indicated that he was a traveler on a long journey. 
His apparel was rather plain and somewhat worn. He was evidently 
suffering from the severe cold, and the fatigue of the day's travel. He 
inquired for the Rev. A. M. Bryan. Who was this stranger ? What 
was he, and what did he want with the minister ? These thoughts 
passed through the minds of all, and all were anxious for an explana- 
tion. 



Chapter XLIX.] ANECDOTES. 629 

Bryan came to the door. One glance at the stranger, and in an in- 
stant he was at the gate, grasping the hand of the new-comer, and bid- 
ding him to alight and come in. He then introduced him as his dear 
friend and fellow-laborer from Kentucky, the Rev. Milton Bird. Brvan 
was relieved; Bird would preach. Bryan ran up stairs to tell Morgan 
that Bird had come just at a time when help was indispensable. They 
both wept for joy, thanking God and taking courage. Bryan would not 
now be left alone. 

Morgan was too ill to come down to take part in the service. He 
was intensely anxious to hear the man who was to take his place when 
he was gone. He said: " I listened closely, but I heard but little of the 
prayer; I was disappointed, I felt discouraged, I tried to pray God to 
help the new preacher. The first part of the sermon I lost entirely. I 
grew more despondent. But as the discourse progressed, and the 
speaker began to warm with his subject, I could hear an occasional sen- 
tence. I was favorably impressed. As he proceeded, and I began to 
hear more distinctly, I became more deeply interested. I found myself 
sitting on the side of the bed. In that position I could hear every sen- 
tence, and my feelings became more deeply enlisted. I went to the 
head of the stairway; I was delighted. There was thought, there was 
reason, there was the Bible, there was logic in every sentence. His 
w r ords were falling like burning coals on the hearts and consciences of 
his hearers. The close was a most happy one. I went back to my bed, 
weeping tears of joy, and feeling that our cause was safe in the hands 
of such men as Bryan and Bird." 

A QUARREL SETTLED BY A SONG. 

The following was also published by the Rev. Le Roy Woods: 

On a certain occasion, when a large congregation was assembled to 
hear Mr. Bryan preach, a dispute arose between the Presbyterians and 
our people, in reference to which were entitled to the use of the house 
at a certain hour. Many present forgot the proprieties of the time and 
place, and the controversy became very hot and unchristian in spirit. 
In the midst of their wrangling and contention, Mr. Bryan rose up in 
the pulpit and began to sing, in a clear, solemn voice the hymn, 

Amazing grace! how sweet the sound, 
That saved a wretch like me. 

The effect was wonderful. Before the first stanza was completed, 
the storm of passion was stilled, and all were silent. Before "the sweet 
singer" had completed the closing lines, 

And God who called me here below 
Shall be forever mine, 



630 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

tears in many eyes proclaimed the deep emotion of the audience. At 
the close of the hymn, the difficulty was amicably and lovingly adjusted, 
and the two denominations continued to occupy the house with uninter- 
rupted good feeling and harmony. 

CONQUERED BY KINDNESS. 

This camp-meeting anecdote was published in one of the church 
papers: 

Once at a camp-meeting, before the first service commenced, a 
huckster wagon drove up. The man had given great trouble at a meet- 
ing held by members of another denomination a few weeks before, and 
had been fined heavily for disturbing religious worship. The Rev. J. M. 
Berry proposed that all the preachers and people present should visit the 
huckster in a body. This plan was adopted, and Mr. Berry began a 
friendly conversation with the huckster. The man stated that he did 
not wish to create any disturbance, and that he did not sell intoxicating 
liquor. Mr. Berry said " Our intention is to worship God." He pointed 
out the good effects of religion. " Now," said he to the huckster, " if 
you intend to do no harm, butfwish to do good, will you not promise 
us that you will attend preaching when we do, and, when the services 
are not going on, supply those who wish to purchase any thing you 
have for sale?" " Yes," said he, " if you will agree that I may take my 
position near the camps, so that I may be in sight, should any one be 
disposed to disturb my wagon." This also was agreed to. " But," said 
Mr. Berry, " the Sabbath is not our time, and none of us have the right 
to buy or sell on that holy day. You will also agree not to wound the 
feelings of the good people, and sin against God, by keeping open 
on the Sabbath." The man agreed to this also. He kept his word in 
every particular, and wept like a child under preaching. On Sabbath 
he carried his cakes around in armfuls, and distributed them gratui- 
tously among the camp-holders and their children. On Monday morn- 
ing he left us. He reported that Cumberland Presbyterians were all 
gentlemen. 

THROUGH HEAD AND HEART. 

When Samuel M. Aston was preaching in Pennsylvania he visited 
one of our churches in which a learned Universalist had proved 
too powerful in argument for the session and the pastor. When 
told of the case, Aston replied: "I will shoot him through the 
head Sunday morning, and through the heart Sunday night. " 
At the service Sabbath morning Aston' s sermon swept away all 
the arguments of the Universalist, till he writhed and groaned in his 



Chapter XLIX.j ANECDOTES. 63 1 

seat. At night, Aston' s presentation of Christ's dying love to lost 
sinners melted the poor man to tears, and won him to a personal 
trust in Christ alone for salvation. 

TARDINESS CURED. 

The Rev. Samuel M. Aston begun his labors with a Pennsylvania 
congregation whose people were rather noted for their tardiness in 
attending the services. When he had preached once or twice, and 
had discovered how slow the people w T ere, he announced that there 
would be services the next Sabbath at 10:30 o'clock precisely. 
The people did not notice, particularly, the emphasis he placed on 
the last word. The next Sabbath, punctual to the minute, Mr. 
Aston arose and began the services, though not more than a dozen 
members of his usually large congregation were in attendance. 
His discourse was a little shorter than usual, and his congregation 
was dismissed and the people on their way home by 11:30 o'clock. 
It was amusing to see the tardy worshipers coming in. Some 
arrived just as the preacher was closing his discourse, some during 
the last hymn, and some just in time for the benediction; while 
the latest stragglers met the returning congregation, and turned 
homeward without reaching the church. On the next Sabbath, at 
10:30 o'clock precisely, the people were all in their seats, waiting 
for the sendees to begin. 



Here is a little picture of Dr. Beard's as a school-boy, drawn by 
himself in an article in the Banner of Peace. It shows that if a 
student has "the root of the matter" in him, he will somehow 
find the road to noble attainments. 

I made up my mind to preach. It was a great trial, but I had, in a 
great measure, to "let the dead bury their dead." In the course of the 
winter I had the opportunity of spending a few weeks at what seemed a 
good school. A young man, who was preparing for the Methodist min- 
istry, was teaching in one of our congregations, and I bought Murray's 
English Grammar and turned in with him. His stock of knowledge, 
however, was soon exhausted, and I had not learned much about the 
grammar. But in the following spring a good old patriarchal elder of 
the church heard of my case. He lived within four miles of one of the 
best schools in the country. He proposed to board me a few months 



632 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

gratuitously, if I could stand the walk to that school. I thought of 
nothing but being able to stand it. A neighboring congregation made 
me up seven dollars and a half for the purchase of necessary books. 
I bought Cumming's Geography and Atlas, Ferguson's Astronomy 
Abridged, Watts' Logic, and the whole set of Murray's Practical Ex- 
ercises, Key, etc., and set myself earnestly to work for the summer. 
My reader will perhaps smile, but I can not help it; this w T as my liter- 
ary outfit. I think I had the root of the matter in me. I walked the 
four miles in the morning, and back in the evening, over a hilly road, 
day in and day out. I literally committed to memory large portions of 
Watts' Logic. I studied every thing with a mind to it: I had crossed 
the Rubicon; my heart was upon the ministry. I did a good work that 
summer. My testimonials from that school are still in my possession— 
fifty-three years old. They were read at the following meeting of the 
presbytery by one of the old men, and pronounced vciy good, 

ANECDOTE OF THE REV. R. D. MORROW. 

One of the church papers many years ago published the follow- 
ing anecdote: 

About the year 1820 the legislature of Missouri was in session at 
the town of St. Charles. The Hon. John Miller, a Cumberland Pres- 
byterian, was the representative from Howard County. The Rev. Mr. 
R., who was then regarded as the giant of the Baptist church in Mis- 
souri, visited St. Charles, and preached to the legislature on this text: 
"For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the 
righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into 
the kingdom of heaven." The next day the Lion. Henry S. Guyer, of 
St. Louis, also a member of the legislature, approached Mr. Milier, and 
criticised the sermon, remarking that Mr. R.'s views of law were un- 
sound, and that, before a competent jury, his reasoning could easily 
be torn into fragments. Mr. Miller replied: "We have a little circuit 
rider up in our country who can preach law which you can not tear to 
pieces." A few weeks afterward, on returning to his room, Mr. Miller 
found that his "little circuit rider " — the Rev. R. D. Morrow — had called 
to see him. It was arranged for Morrow to preach in the Senate cham- 
ber. Mr. Miller took special pains to notify Mr. Guyer to attend. The 
hour arrived, and a promiscuous crowd of law-makers and law violaters 
had assembled. When the preacher entered the door, and walked down 
the long aisle of the chamber, dressed in plain homespun jeans, with 
his saddle-bags on his arm, all eyes were turned to get a view of Mr. 
Miller's circuit rider. Mr. Morrow's unprepossessing appearance caused 
many eyes, among them Mr. Guyer's, to be turned upon Mr. Miller, 



Chapter XLIX.] ANECDOTES. 633 

with an inquiring glance, as much as to say, "Is that your law 
preacher?" The services proceeded. Strange as it may seem. Mr. 
Morrow, without any knowledge of what had passed on the former 
occasion, announced the same subject upon which Mr. R. had preached. 
In a few minutes the audience was spell-bound, and for one hour many 
hearts were made to burn within them, while the preacher opened up 
God's glorious plan of justification and redemption. Even Mr. Guyer 
could not refrain from emotion; and as they walked out of the chamber 
he said to Mr. Miller, "That law will do; I can't pick any flaws in that 
man's views of law." 

THE E.ULING PASSION STRONG IN DEATH. 

When the Rev. R. D. King lay dying the members of his con- 
gregation resolved to visit him in a body. King was notified of 
their coming; and, when his beloved flock were gathered around 
him, he had them bring him his Bible and prop him up in bed. 
Taking a text, he then proceeded to preach them a sermon. The 
voice was feeble; the body was sinking into the grave; but his soul 
was filled with God's Spirit; and an unconverted woman that day, 
in that chamber of the dying saint, found Jesus and salvation. He 
had been in the ministry sixty-two years, and winning souls had 
been his ruling passion through all these years. For that work he 
had patiently borne the most wonderful hardships, and he rejoiced 
on his death-bed that he had been counted worthy of suffering such 
hardships for Christ's sake. So, greatly to his delight, God used 
him even in death in bringing one more soul into everlasting light. 
O happy servant he whom his Master finds thus watching! King's 
death was at his Texas home, in 1883. He was then past his three- 
score and ten, and glad to meet his summons home to heaven. 

COMFORT THROUGH FAITHFULNESS. 1 

In Mississippi, forty years ago, there was a young lady who, in 
her childhood, had professed conversion, but had afterward fallen 
into doubt. Her doubts grew upon her, and at the annual camp- 
meeting she sought counsel of the preachers and other Christians, 
and struggled alone in prayer to God for light and comfort. But 
she found no relief; the darkness was not dispelled, but grew 

1 This and the following incident are furnished by the Rev. J. G. Boydstun, of 
Mississippi. 



634 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

thicker. Finally she settled it in her heart that she had com- 
mitted the unpardonable sin, and was hopelessly lost. Along with 
this conclusion came also the determination to spend all the rest of 
her life in laboring to keep others from falling into the same 
lamentable condition. When the usual call for mourners came at 
the next service, she began to act on her resolution. Going to 
a seat filled with unconverted young ladies, she told them that she 
was herself hopelessly lost, but she wanted her young friends to 
escape so bitter a destiny. One of them rose and went to the 
mourner's bench, saying she felt as if a lost spirit had been sent 
from the dead to warn her. Others followed her example. The 
despairing messenger still went with her warnings among the 
young people, and at last a large number of her associates were 
among the happy converts. Then all her doubts forever vanished, 
and from that day she has lived in the sweet assurance of her own 
salvation. 

ANECDOTE OF THE REV. F. M. FINCHER. 

Many years ago the Methodists were holding a camp-meeting 
in the neighborhood where the Rev. F. M. Fincher, of the Cum- 
berland Presbyterian church, lived. The meeting dragged through 
its allotted time without any conversions. The campers advised 
the presiding elder to close the meeting. The congregation was at 
that time gathered in front of ' ' the stand. ' ' The elder asked Mr. 
Fincher to say a few words, intending then to close the meeting. 
Fincher rose and stood for some moments in front of the stand, 
silently weeping. Then he quoted Jeremiah ix. 1: u O that my 
head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears," and pro- 
ceeded to make an earnest exhortation. The Holy Spirit was 
poured out; mourners were called; conversions followed. The 
meeting was protracted, and was given over almost entirely into 
Fincher' s hands. There was a great spiritual victory whose fruits 
still abide. 

Mr. Fincher and the Rev. John Nicholson, of the same presby- 
tery, were comrades in toil, and their labors were often blessed with 
gracious results similar to those just described. To this day the 
people of Mississippi remember a sermon preached by Nicholson, 
when he was so worn down with toil that he could scarcely stand 



Chapter XLIX.] ANECDOTES. 635 

on his feet. Every sentence from his lips went like an arrow to 
the people's hearts. At the close of that wonderful sermon a little 
boy led the prayer, and people said it was an angel's voice pleading 
for sinners. This boy afterward became a minister of the gospel. 

A MISSOURI CAMP-MEETING. 

The year 1854 was one of great drouth in some parts of Missouri, 
the severest ever known to the people of that State. It continued 
from June 1854 to May 1855. Trees died, stock perished, people 
were in extreme suffering for lack of water. The "Salt Fork" 
Cumberland Presbyterian church had a pretty large membership. 
About one third of these members wanted to hold their annual 
camp-meeting, drouth or no drouth. The other two thirds ear- 
nestly objected, and positively refused to co-operate. Only three 
families were willing to move to the encampment. Still the 
minority resolved to hold the meeting. They secured the services 
of the Rev. J. B. Morrow, and the Rev. P. G. Rea. They got 
permission to use a dry well near the camp-ground. From a big 
spring, three miles distant, they hauled water in barrels and filled 
the well. By keeping a wagon constantly running all through 
the meeting, they kept a supply of water in this reservoir. At first 
only a few people were present. Part of the few were rowdies who 
attended for the purpose of making disturbance, and for several 
days resorted to various methods of interrupting the services. At 
last some of them went so far as to pretend to be seeking religion. 
The instructions which these pretended mourners received were 
such as to make their ears tingle. Finally they became so 
frightened at the solemnity of the meeting, that they ran away. 
Then their leader began to feel real conviction, and sought his 
Savior in good earnest. In spite of drouth, opposing members, 
and lawless rowdies, God blessed his faithful servants with a gra- 
cious revival. About seventy conversions were counted among the 
results of the meeting. 

THE BARN MEETING. 

In 1851 there was in Saline County, Missouri, a neighborhood 
which had no church of any denomination. The Rev. P. G. Rea 
made arrangements to hold an out-door meeting in a grove near a 



636 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

large barn in that neighborhood. Rain setting in, the services were 
held in the barn. There was good interest, and the meetings were 
continued two weeks. One of the mourners was a bright little 
girl whose father was an unconverted man. This father feigned 
to be sick, and kept away from the meetings more than a week, 
but his wife was praying for him. At last, on Sabbath, he ventured 
to attend. That day his daughter was still a mourner, but before 
the services ended she was converted. Then she went to her father 
and asked him to seek his Savior. He promptly agreed to do so, 
and went with her to the mourner's bench, where he also found 
peace in believing. Though now old, he still maintains a consist- 
ent Christian life. This meeting in the barn was the origin of the 
Mt. Horeb church. 

A TRIAL AND A TRIUMPH. 

Ill Logan County, Kentucky, in the great revival of 1800, a 
youthful daughter of George McLean became a Christian. Her 
father was at that time a gambler, distiller, and man of the world 
generally. The daughter, Elizabeth, was a disturbing element in 
the godless revels of the family. The father tried through several 
of her associates to win her back to a worldly life. Then, as now, 
the dance was relied upon as the entering wedge to divide asunder 
the Christian and the Savior. But all efforts to entangle Elizabeth 
in this snare of Satan utterly failed. Then her father changed his 
tactics. As she would not go to balls, he resolved to have one at 
his own house. When the guests were assembled, and all in- 
ducements had failed to make her dance, he said to her: "You 
profess to go by your Bible. The Bible commands you to obey 
your parents. I now order you positively to dance the next set 
with me, your father." She obeyed, but spent the time while she 
was dancing in solemn prayer to God for the conversion of her 
father. Her face was pale, her countenance sad, her eyes were 
filled with tears. All present felt impressed by her conduct. Her 
father broke down, publicly asked her pardon, and began to pray 
for salvation. He never rested until he became a rejoicing Chris- 
tian. Other members of the family were brought into the fold. 
Year after year McLean was found in his tent at old Mt. Moriah 
camp-ground, ready to co-operate with Chapman and Harris in 



Chapter XLIX.J ANECDOTES. 637 

their annual camp-meetings. The family all became Christians, 
and have all of them made their record among the best workers 
of our church. When it became necessary for him to move to an- 
other neighborhood, where there was no camp-ground, Mr. McLean 
established one. He built five camps, and agreed to furnish all the 
provisions if his neighbors would occupy his camps and feed the 
people. Elder A. J. McLean was his son, and the Rev. George D. 
McLean, of precious memory, was his grandson. 

ANOTHER DANCING INCIDENT. 

In 1867 in a Tennessee town lived a beautiful and wealthy lady 
who was fond of dancing. There was a revival in the town, and 
the only daughter of this fashionable lady was among the converts. 
She wanted to join the church, but her parents opposed. The 
pastor visited them, and discussed the question very earnestly with 
them. They said: u No; she shall not join. You would not let 
her dance, and we intend her to be a society woman." They car- 
ried their point. A society woman she became. She is still a 
society woman, but the scene of her sad career has changed. She 
now leads a life of shame in the great city, and the mother lives 
with her daughter. The tree is known by its fruits. % 

A WAR INCIDENT. 

1 

At the battle of Murfreesboro, Rev. W. P. McBryde, who was 
afterward chaplain, went along with his regiment. After the 
great battle w T as over, he found a bullet hole in his shoe, another 
in his haversack, and another through the back of his coat. A 
ball had torn off the front part of his vest pbcket. Another had 
passed between his sleeve and breast, cutting the coat. Taking 
out his Bible from his side pocket for his regular scripture reading 
that ni^ht, he found a bullet hole through the Bible. And vet 
McBryde himself had received no wound. Some will say all such 
things are the result of chance, or of nature's laws; and some of 
us prefer seeing the protecting hand of a loving Father shielding 
a life for which he still had other uses. 

A CASE OF EASTING AND PRAYER. 

The Rev. R. G. Sims was holding a meeting in Arkansas. 
Two sisters were attending, one a Christian, the other not. The 



638 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period VI. 

Christian sister asked Sims what he thought about fasting. He is 
an earnest believer in its efficacy. He gave the young lady inci- 
dents pointing to the divine blessing on fasting as a means of grace. 
She resolved to observe a protracted season of fasting and prayer 
for her sister's conversion. At the closing hour of her appointed 
fast she was seated beside that sister in the church. Up to this 
time no indications of any answer to her prayer had been given. 
The unconverted sister had made no public demonstration of inter- 
est or concern; but now she rose to her feet, and, extending her 
hand, said very quietly: "Your prayers are answered; I am saved.* ' 
Going through the congregation in the same quiet way, she com- 
municated the same intelligence to her friends and acquaintances. 
Her life since that day gives evidence of genuine conversion. 

A GAINSAYER CONVERTED. 

At one of Mr. Sims' meetings, a woman who ridiculed experi- 
mental religion, carried her Bible to church and made a vigorous 
canvass among the mourners, trying to prove that the minister's 
teachings about repentance, and faith, and the love of God in the 
heart were unscriptural and false. She was noisy, insolent, and 
persistent. Sims inquired about her, and learned that her parents 
were good Methodists. Taking an elder with him to the grove, 
the two joined in prayer to God for the fulfillment of the promise 
made in Psalms lxxiv. 10-12. The meetings went on, and the 
mocker pursued her opposition. Then her daughter was among 
the rejoicing converts. The mother railed on her, argued with 
her, but the daughter, after hearing respectfully all that her mother 
had to say, replied calmly: " I can not but testify to what I know 
and feel in my own soul. I know I am happy in Jesus." At this 
the mother fell prostrate and began praying for salvation. She 
continued to seek, until she was enabled to testify before the whole 
congregation that she now knew for herself the reality of that 
spiritual experience which she had ridiculed. Members of her 
church then interfered, and took her home. They said she was 
crazy. Her husband was absent, driving stock to market. They 
wrote to him that his wife had lost her reason. He sacrificed his 
stock, and hurried home, expecting to find his wife a hopeless 



Chapter XLIX.] ANECDOTES. 



639 



wreck. To his delight he found her in her right mind more than 
she had ever been before. After a few days' observation he went to 
the church of which he and his wife had both been members, and 
asked them to take his name off their rolls. 

A BAND OF ROWDIES CONQUERED. 

At one of the meetings which Mr. Sims held in Arkansas, a 
band of unconverted men determined to break up the meeting. 
Sims went to God in fasting and prayer. The wife and daughter 
of the ringleader of the band became deeply concerned about their 
souls, and went to the mourner's bench. This enraged the wicked 
man. At the next service he took his stick and went with his 
family to church, declaring it to be his purpose to beat the preacher 
with his stick. Sims, who had just ended one of his seasons of 
fasting and prayer, made his usually solemn though simple talk, 
and then started through the congregation to the spot where the 
man with his stick was seated. There was a power in the preach- 
er's presence which made this boastful opposer of religion tremble. 
Along with this power, given in answer to prayer, the minister 
showed that fearlessness which the conscious assurance of divine 
protection always imparts. As Sims approached, the ruffian re- 
treated, leaving the church and going to his home. The wife and 
daughter were converted that day, and when they entered their 
house they found the wicked man prostrate in prayer. He was at 
last converted and went to work for other lost souls. He held 
prayers in his family, and gave of his money freely to the cause of 
Christ. Other violent opposers were also reached by the Holy 
Spirit, and became part of the praying band. 

THE KEYSTONE OF THE ARCH. 

When the Rev. W. H. Crawford was young in the ministry, he 
and another minister held a series of meetings not far from his 
home in East Tennessee. The congressman for that district was 
present. While this man was very popular, he was not a Chris- 
tian, and his presence was a terror to the young preachers. During 
the sermon, however, the preacher forgot the fear of man, and pro- 
claimed with power the plain truth of God. The congressman was 
in tears. Seeing this, Mr. Crawford went to him when the sermon 



640 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

closed, and said: "Mr. C, you need no argument from me to con- 
vince you that you ought to be a Christian. 1 ' He answered: U I 
do not." The preacher said: "There is one thing more that you 
ought to know, if you do not already know it. You are standing 
in the way of others." 

The congressman rose to his feet, and speaking aloud, said: "I 
want it distinctly understood that I will stand in the way of no- 
body. If you want to be Christians, come along with me to the 
mourner's bench." Grasping a prominent friend in each hand, he 
led the way to the place of prayer. There were sixty conversions 
there that day, including nearly all the adult sinners of the neigh- 
borhood. A church was organized, a house built, and Crawford 
was called to be pastor of the new flock. In this relation he re- 
mained for many years. The congregation still lives. 

A PRESBYTERIAN ELDER CONVINCED. 

At this meeting just described, there was a Presbyterian 
elder who had been bitterly prejudiced against "the Cumber- 
lands." When, however, he saw the conversion of the congress- 
man, and after that the conversion of his own children, his preju- 
dices were all swept away, and he became as demonstrative in his 
religious raptures as any one else at the meeting. This elder, like 
thousands of others in that day, had been taught to believe that 
u Cumberlands " and "New Lights" were one and the same, and 
that our church had no written creed, but was opposed to Confes- 
sions of Faith. 

A CHRISTMAS PARTY.- 

The unconverted young men of an East Tennessee neighbor- 
hood met to decide how to enjoy the approaching Christinas. 
After some conversation it was proposed to send for the Rev. W. 
H. Crawford, have a meeting, all of them agreeing to seek their 
souls' salvation. The proposition was adopted, and a petition was 
drawn up stating that they desired Mr. Crawford to come and hold 
a meeting with a view to their conversion. They all signed the 
petition. Mr. Crawford complied with their request. At the first 
service he read the petition to the congregation. One dear old 
Methodist shouted when he heard the paper read. The meetings 



Chapter XLIX.] ANECDOTES. 641 

were wonderfully successful. About one hundred conversions were 
reported. Among these were all but one of the young men who 
had signed the petition. One declared it to be a mere joke. He 
mocked at the meeting, and opposed it. A few days afterward, in 
the same church at a public meeting, he was attacked with a sud- 
den illness, and fell dead from his pew. 

TWO CASES CONTRASTED. 

On the last day of one of our great camp-meetings in the olden 
time, a preacher was going silently about among the people, talking 
with the unconverted. One of the persons whom he approached 
was a young man named Joe. After some preliminaries Joe said: 
"I have deliberately made up my mind to wait till the Providence 
camp-meeting, two weeks from now, and then to seek religion." 
Afterward the preacher had a conversation with a young lady who 
was also unconverted. She said, "I don't intend to leave this 
camp-ground till I find my Savior." She kept her word. When 
the last service was over and the congregation was dismissed, she 
refused to go away. Some friends remained with her, and at two 
o'clock that night she found peace in believing. The next week 
she and Joe both died. Joe said, with his last breath, "Lost, for- 
ever lost! " The young lady, with her last breath, proclaimed the 
joys of salvation. Her face was radiant with heavenly light even 
until the pulses ceased to beat. 

A DEFEAT CHANGED TO VICTORY. 

Bethel and Shiloh were the names of two camp-grounds in 
West Tennessee where the beloved Robert Baker used to win 
many a triumph as God's own chosen minister. After Christ 
called Baker home, there was one camp-meeting at Bethel which, 
though attended by even larger congregations than usual, seemed 
to be an utter failure. The last day of the meeting came. The 
campers loaded their wagons to return to their homes. They were 
disappointed and sad. Never before had Bethel camp-meeting 
closed without any conversions. Parents were there who had been 
looking fondly to that meeting as the time when their unconverted 
children would be brought to the Lord. There were many bowed 
heads and heavy hearts. Although the wagons were all loaded 
4* 



642 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

and every thing ready for going home, still all seemed reluctant to 
leave the encampment. Men were seated silently about the camps; 
women were weeping. Mrs. Lou. Bigham was one of the best 
Christians in that neighborhood. She sat with her head bowed 
upon a table, not weeping, but praying. After a while her prayers 
grew articulate. Then they became audible. Others seated about 
also began to pray. In a few moments there was a girdle of 
prayer around the encampment. It was not social prayer, but 
each one prayed apart. Some lay prostrate, some were on their 
knees, and some were seated. After a few moments more Mrs. 
Bigham 1 s voice rang with the accents of victory. God had given 
her assurance that her prayer was accepted. The power of the 
Spirit touched the unconverted, and soon in every tent there was 
some poor sinner seeking salvation. Outside, scattered here and 
there, were little groups of praying ones bowed together with some 
anxious inquirers after salvation. No dinner was eaten. At night 
the wagons were unloaded, and public services were held. Before 
that meeting closed the names of more than two hundred converts 
had been enrolled. Among these converts were several young 
men who afterward became ministers of the gospel. 



. About forty-eight years ago the grandmother of the Rev. J. N. 
McDonald was living with her son, Alexander McDonald, in Ver- 
million County, Illinois. She was a devoted member of the Pres- 
byterian church, but her son was not a Christian. She, however, 
kept up regular family worship with her son's household. By and 
by her prayers became very personal. She pleaded for the conver- 
sion of her son. He did not like this, and expostulated with her. 
She told him that she would agree to refrain from such direct 
prayers on condition that he would go at once for the Rev. Mr. Ross 
(a Cumberland Presbyterian minister), and have him come and 
lipid a meeting there in their own house. There was no meeting- 
house in the neighborhood. The ground was then covered with 
snow, but with some reluctance and misgivings the condition was 
accepted. Ross came and held the meeting. A gracious revival 
was the result. Many persons were converted, and a Cumberland 






Chapter XLIX.] ANECDOTES. 643 

Presbyterian church was organized with forty members. The first 
name on its roll was Mrs. McDonald's. That church still exists. 
Nearly all the members of that branch of the McDonald family, 
wherever they are now scattered, are Cumberland Presbyterians. 

A JEW CONVERTED. 

Many years ago Mr. D. , a thriving Hebrew merchant, lived in 
a Tennessee town. The services of the Rev. C. A. Davis, D.D., 
were secured to hold a series of meetings in the Cumberland Pres- 
byterian church. This Jewish citizen attended the meetings and 
became an ardent admirer of the preacher. One day Dr. Davis 
discussed the prophecies which point to Christ as the Messiah of 
the Old Testament. D. was present, and gave close attention. As 
the proofs were brought nearer and nearer to a demonstration, the 
sweat rolled from D.'s face. At last the preacher closed up the last 
link in the chain of his argument. The Jew saw it all like a flash 
of lightning. In an instant, right in the midst of the sermon, he 
cried out at the top of his voice, u O thou son of David, have 
mercy upon me." He became an earnest Christian, and his whole 
family followed him into the Cumberland Presbyterian church, 
where he maintained a consistent membership until the day of his 

death. 

L. c. ransom's discipline. 

While L. C. Ransom was pastor at Memphis, Tennessee, a lady 
who had been an active and 'faithful member in his congregation 
attended the theater. Afterward she began to have some anxiety 
about what her pastor would say on the subject. Finally she made 
up her mind to put on a bold face. She would resent any attempts 
to lecture her as an interference with her private rights, and assert 
her ability to judge for herself what was proper conduct for a church 
member. Her first meeting with the pastor was in his study alone. 
He met her kindly, took her cordially by the hand, and, bursting 
into tears, turned away and hid his face from her sight. She then 
and there resolved never again to attend the theater. 

PRESENTIMENT OF DEATH. 
In 1871 the Rev. A. J. McGown was attending the meeting of 
Trinity Presbytery. He preached Friday. Saturday he was again 






644 Cumberland Presbyterian History. [Period vi. 

appointed to preach. When he rose in the pulpit those who had 
long known him say that they never before saw on his face such an 
expression of solemnity. He commenced by saying: " Brethren, I 
feel impressed that this is to be my last sermon, and I want to take 
this text, ' Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every 
creature.' ,? The sermon was one of great power. He returned 
after services to the house of Mr. Murchison, where he took 'his 
bed, from which he rose no more. 



INDEX 



A. 

Adair, Rev. Wayman, enters the ministry, 162; in Mississippi, 259. 

Alabama, planting churches in, 155; an incident, 161; beset with 
trials, 162, 163. 

Alabama Presbytery, manner of organization, 158; a hard field, 159; 
its candidates, 161; condemning the convention, 236. 

Allegheny Presbytery, when organized, 291. 

Allen, Joseph W., an incident of, 455. 

Allen, Rev. O. D., 614. 

Alton (111.), Board of Missions, 382, 441. 

Anecdotes, 627-644. 

Anderson, Rev. Alexander, written discourse of, 48; licensed, 49; 
gifts of, 54; prayer answered, 55. 

Anderson, Rev. Jesse, publishing agent, 580. 

Anderson, Rev. Dr. S. T., missionary to Trinidad, 479-481; return of, 
482; professor in Waynesburg College, 539. 

Anderson, Rev. Dr. T. C, biographical sketch of Rev. George Don- 
nell, 145, 146; assistant editor, 231; in Ohio, 298; an incident, 
305; professor in Cumberland University, 509, 510; president, 
511; resignation, 516. 

Anti-Revival Party, 61. 

Ark, The, 593. 

Arkansas, planting of church in, 188-200. 

Arkansas Presbytery, when and where constituted, 195; no quorum, 
196; extension, 196; meetings, 197. 

Armstrong, Rev. J. C, missionary to Turkey, 335; commissioned to 
go to the North-west, 338; an incident, 338; organizes churches, 
339; glimpses of his work, 339, 340, 443-447. 

Ashmore, Rev. H. H., extract from manuscript of, 172; incidents of, 

424, 425. 

(645) 



646 Index. 

Aston, Rev. S. M., sent to East Tennessee, 145; in Pennsylvania, 284; 
in Ohio, 299; anecdotes of, 630, 631. 

Austin (Texas), 458. 

Axtell, Rev. Philip, editor The Religious Pantagraph and Semi- 
centennial, 592. 



B. 

Bacon, Rev. Sumner, rejected as a candidate, 263; first Protestant to 
preach in Texas, 264; adventures of, 263-266; licensed and 
ordained the same day, 266; at a meeting of Mississippi Synod, 
268. 

Baird, Rev. Dr. A. J., compiler of hymn book, 589; corresponding 
delegate, 449, 450; instructor in Greene Academy, 528; author 
of Mahlon's Letters, 591; death, 467. 

Baker, Rev. Mr., 429. 

Baker, Rev. Robert, sent to East Tennessee, 145; to West Tennes- 
see, 149; 641. 

Baker, Rev. Robert W., missionary to the Indians, 330; principal of 
Armstrong Academy, 330. 

Balcii, Rev. Mr., opposition of, 39, 80. 

Baldridge, Rev. W. H., testimony of, 32. 

Banner of Peace, 238, 389, 591. 

Barnett, Rev. John, first sermon in Illinois, 168; lease of, 216. 

Barnett Presbytery, when organized, 185; its original members, 

is 5 . 

Barnett, Rev. William, biographical sketch of, 92; won to missions, 
136; in West Tennessee, 150. 

Baxter, Rev. Dr., testimony of, 23, 24; jerks, 47. 

Beard, Rev. Dr. R., testimony of, 36; sketch of Rev. W. Harris, 95; 
sketch of Rev. Robert Bell, 141; sent to Forked Deer circuit, 
149; 222: elected president of Cumberland College, 224, 227; his 
assistants there, 227; closed his work at, 228; in charge of Sharon 
Academy, 259; a corresponding delegate, 317, 318; anti-slavery 
record, 412, 413; 450; page in Assembly's Minutes set apart to, 
458; professor in theological department Cumberland University, 
514, 515, report on education, 556; anecdote of, 631, 632. 



Index. 647 

Beck, Rev. W. W., 617. 

Beech Church, 15; historic interest, 121. 

Beesox, Rev. Dr. W. E., president of Trinity University, 552; resig- 
nation, 553. 

Bell, Rev. Dr. C. H., address of, 475; in St. Louis, 471; lectures in 
Theological School, 506; president of Union Female College, 
565; president Board of Missions, 476. 

Bell, Rev. Robert, at school, 6; testimony of, 17; biographical 
sketch, 91; prepares constitution for first missionary society, 129; 
sent as an evangelist, 130; school opened, 133; convictions as 
to education, 134; government aid secured, 134; could not be 
driven away, 135; his correspondence, 136-140; mission closed, 
140, biographical sketch by Rev. Dr. Beard, 141; sent to Hunt's 
Spring, 156. 

Bell, Rev. R. S., missionary to the Indians, 330; 441. 

Berry, Rev. J. M., anecdotes of, 306, 608, 609, 630. 

Bethel College (Tenn.), 566-568; origin of, 566; struggles of young 
men, 566, 567; a lesson on concentration, 567; its succession of 
presidents, 568. 

Bethel Presbytery (Indian), when organized, 389; 476, 477. 

Best, Rev. James, in Logansport (Ind.), 474. 

Beverly College (Ohio), origin of, 531, 532. 

Biddle, Rev. J. G., professor in Cumberland College, 227; at Win- 
chester, Tenn., 228. 

Big Spring Church, origin, 121; Rev. Thomas Calhoun first pastor, 
122. 

Bird, Rev. Dr. Miltox, reply to the Presbyterian, 46; paper of, 239, 
240; arrival in Pennsylvania, 2S3, 62S; editor of the Union and 
Evangelist, 291; opening sermons, 311, 391; chairman Commit- 
tee of Publication, 314; chairman of Committee on Fraternal 
Correspondence, 318; clerk of General Assembly, 320; opposed 
to concentration, 362; opposed to abolition of synods, 389; editor, 
595, 596; professor in Madison College, 529; publishing agent, 
579; sermon of, 391; report of, 558; death of, 449; 629. 

Black, Rev. F. G., at Lebanon, Ohio, 29S; in Cincinnati, 323, 377. 

Black, Rev. W. H., in St. Louis, 472; not admitted to Pan -Presbyte- 
rian Council, 462; report of, 463. 



648 Index. 

Blackburn, Rev. Dr., "tokens," 19; revivals, 24; a revival meeting, 
43; "jerks," 47; a leader in East Tennessee, 143; mission to the 
Indians, 128. 

Blackwell, William, a specimen elder, 188. 

Blake, Rev. Dr. T. C, secretary Board of Missions, 313; established 
the S. S. Gem, 389; agent Cumberland University, 513, 515; 
editor Banner of Peace, 591; editor of the Theological Medium, 
596; publishing agent, 587; financial agent Board of Publication, 
583; stated clerk General Assembly, 459. 

Bone, Rev. Dr. M. H., began his work, 152; an incident, 154; as agent- 
visits Ohio and Pennsylvania, 273; president Board of Education, 
316; organized church at Lebanon, Ohio, 298; two incidents, 373, 

377- 
Books, of fourtn period, 367; names and cnaracter of, 367-369; new, 
461. 

Boone, Daniel, 5. 

Bowdon, Rev. Dr. J. C, 435; president of Lincoln University, 545. 

Bowling Green (Ky.), a great revival, 301; an incident, 377; school 
(col), 437, 455. 

Boydstun, Rev. J. G., 633. 

Bradley, Rev. C. J., president Bethel College, 568. 

Braly, Rev. Frank M., an incident, 183, 184. 

Braly, Rev. J. E., in Oregon, 343; incidents by the way, 343, 344; 
arrival in California, 349, 350; 353. 

Brice, Rev. A. B., editor Cumberland Presbyterian (Uniontown), 

59 1 * 594- 
Brown, Col. Joe, 3, 109. 

Brown, Rev. Dr. J. R., editor, 460, 595; author of "Lights on the 
Way," 489; editor Cumberland Presbyterian, 586; editor St. 
Louis Observer, 595; editor The Ladies'' Pearl, 595. 

Brownsville (Neb.), 615. 

Bryan, Rev. Dr. A. M., appointed to visit Pennsylvania, 274; first to 
work in Pittsburg, 283; at Meadville (Pa.), 2S9; his work in 
Pittsburg, 290; anecdotes of, 290, 628, 629. 

Buchanan, Rev. Andrew, as a preacher, 196; a fearless hero, 199. 
Buchanan, Rev. John, his work and influence, 305. 



Index. 649 

Buchanan, Rev. Dr. S. H., 472; tutor in Cane Hill College, 569. 

Buie, Rev. Daniel, first to settle in Missouri, 175; last days of, 375. 

Bunyan, Rev. John, quotation from, 6j. 

Burney, A. M., president Cumberland Female College, 566. 

Burney, Rev. Dr. S. G., on abolition of synods, 370, 3S9; president 
Union Female College, 564; report on education, 556. 

Burney, Rev. W. S., abundant in labors, 259. 

Burrow, Rev. A. G., chaplain, 430. 

Burrow, Rev. Dr. Reubex, sent to Missouri, 179; an incident, 180; 
small salary, 182; physical power, 193; an incident, 194; visit to 
Pennsylvania, 274; camp-meeting, 281 ; an incident, 282; on sanc- 
tification, 370; infant justification, 370; rights of presbyteries, 370. 

Bushxell, Rev. Dr. D. E., quotation from, 354; 440; editor Pacific 
Observer, 596. 

C. 

Calhoun, Rev. Thomas, an incident, 30; prayer of, 31; an incident, 
33; answer to prayer, 35; camp-meeting, 89; biographical sketch 
of, 91; life work, 123; first evangelistic tour, 128; in East Ten- 
nessee, 143; glimpse of pioneer life, 147; through West Tennes- 
see, 149; at Hunt's Spring, 156; public confession, 246; first 
president Board of Missions, 312; testimony of, 604. 

Calhoun, Rev. T. P., secretary Board of Missions, 313. 

California, planting of churches in, 34S-356; first Protestant preach- 
ing in, 350; fascinations of, 355; difficulties, 355, 356; advantages 
of, 356. 

California Presbytery, when and where organized, 352; original 
members, 352. 

Campbell, Rev. Dr. W., editor Cumberland Presbyterian (Pa.), 592. 

Campbell, Rev. Dr. W. S., 436. 

Camp-meetings, first in Christendom, 13; description of, 14; order of 
the day, 15; held in churchless communities, 1 17; an example, 1 17; 
first held in East Tennessee, 147; "old Shiloh," in Carroll County, 
149; first held in Illinois, 171; in Missouri, 184; in Texas, 265; in 
Pennsylvania. 279, 282; in Arkansas, 192; in Ohio. 293; in [owa, 
337; "died a lingering death," 370; colored people at, 433, 434. 

Cane Hill Church (Ark.), 198, 199. 



. 



650 Index. 

Cane Hill College, "a school for Jesus," 199; its first board of trust, 
304; our oldest school, 305; building destroyed by fire, 569, 570; 
charter procured, 568; both sexes admitted, 569. 

Cane Ridge (Ky.), meetings at, 44. 

Cane Ridge (Tenn.), 17. 

Carmichaels (Pa.), church at, 2S7; Greene Academy, 52S. 

Carnahan, Rev. John, labors in Alabama, 156; in Arkansas, 1S9; 
first Protestant sermon, 189; a solitary standard-bearer, 190 

Carolinas, Synod of the, 10. 

Caruthers, Judge Abram, professor in law department Cumberland 
University, 512. 

Caruthers, Hon. R. L., president trustees Cumberland University, 

509, 512. 

Catechism, examination in, 116. 

Cave Spring, camp-meeting at, 31. 

Chadick, Rev. W. D., missionary in Chattanooga, 474; agentCumber- 
land University, 514; editor Banner' of Peaee, 591. 

Chapel Hill College, 561. 

Chapman, Rev. Alexander, an incident, 33; special prayer, 35; 
answer to prayer, 36; first exhortation, 56; biographical sketch 
of, 92; in Indiana, 164; a camp-meeting, 168; a missionary tour, 
171; visits Pennsylvania, 274. 

Chapman Presbytery, ordination by, 31. 

Chase, Rev. J. A., agent Lincoln University, 549. 

Chattanooga (Tenn.), mission in, 474; convention at, 383. 

Chautauqua, assembly at, 31. 

Cheap Scholarships, 573-576. 

Cherokees, mission to, 476; first church organized, 477; first presby- 
tery, 477; schools, 478. 

Cherokee Presbytery, organized, 477; items o. interest, 478, 479. 

Cherry Grove Seminary, 555. 

Chesnut, Rev. Dr. S. P., editor Banner of Peace, 591; editor The 
Ladies' Pearl, 595. 

Chickasaws, mission to the, 476. 

Chico, Judge, 476. 



Index. 651 

Choctaws, mission to the, 476. 

Choctaw Presbytery, proceedings of a, 619, 620. 

Church, The, change of name, 320. 

Church Erection, the Board of, its organization, 316. 

Church Papers, The, difficulties connected with our first paper, 229- 
239; Religious and Literary Intelligencer, 229; moved to Nash- 
ville — The Revivalist, 230; changed to Cmnberland Presbyte- 
rian, 231; assistant editor, 231; plans of Assembly's committee, 
232; Smith's conditions accepted, 233; paper suspended, 234; 
proposed consolidation, 365; a sample argument used, 365, 366; 
proposition failed, 367; debates, 371; papers in Pennsylvania, 591. 

Church Trials, an unusually large number, 371. 

Circuits, extent of, 54. 

Colbert, Levi, a Chickasaw chief, 131, 132, 140; a letter of, 137. 

Colesburg Presbytery, when organized, its extent, 340. 

College, Cumberland, convention of delegates, 61; necessity of 
establishing a, 201; theory of manual labor, 201, 214; a printing 
establishment with, 202; commissioners to locate, 214; "on 
credit," 214; doubters as to location, 215. 

Colorado, 610. 

Colorado Springs, self-sustaining, 611. 

Concord Church (Pa.), 282. 

Concord Church (W. Tenn.), 302, 303. 

Confession of Faith, necessity for, 9S; outline statement of doctrine, 
9S-100; adherence to the word, 100; synod's committee, 100; 
Robert Donnell's memoranda, 100, 101; Dr. C. H. Bell's exhibit, 
101-103; much in the Westminster Confession left unchanged, 
104; additions, 104; guards against abuse, 104, 105; medium the- 
ology taught, 106; diagram of representative creeds, 107; com- 
mittee appointed to revise, 458; consideration of revision, 459; 
transmitted to presbyteries, 459; declared adopted, 459. 

Controversies, on doctrinal questions, 369, 370; on rights of presby- 
teries, 370; abolition of synods, 370; tone greatly improved, 370; 
revision of Confession of Faith, 370; in the newspapers, 371; 
Dr. Cossitt and the Presbyterians, 372. 

Convention, The, 233-236; the defense of, 235; resolution to publish 
a paper at Lebanon, Tenn., 234. 



652 Index. 

Cooper, Rev. J. L., general missionary, 428; work of, 438; principal 
of Spring Hill Institute, 571, 572. 

Cornwall, Rev. J. A., first Cumberland Presbyterian minister in 
Oregon, 343; difficulties of, 345, 346; first Oregon church organ- 
ized by, 346. 

Cossitt, Rev. Dr. F. R., president of Cumberland College, 202, 225; 
his assistants, 225; editor Banner of Peace, 238; 274, 275; presi- 
dent of Board of Missions, 312; in favor of Japan, 335; in favor 
of concentration, 362; president of Cumberland University, 509; 
report on education, 558. 

Coulter, Rev. J. H., 418; in St. Louis, 470. 

Council, The, sent commissioners to Kentucky Synod, 6S; organiza- 
tion and agreement, 82; struggle for reconciliation, 82-84. 

Craighead, Rev. Thomas B., 7; testimony of, 8; opposition of, 15; 
opposition to revivals, 39. 

Crawford, Rev. C. H., 440. 

Crawford, Rev. John, pioneer in Illinois, 168; autobiography of, 169; 
an incident, 170. 

Crawford, Rev. N. J., missionary to the Indians, 477. 

Crawford, Rev. W. H., three anecdotes of, 639, 640. 

Crider, Rev. P. H., 441; agent Waynesburg College, 540. 

Crisman, Rev. Dr. E. B., agent Trinity University, 554; editor Texas 
Observer, 594; secretary Board of Missions, 476; sketch of Trin- 
ity University, 552. 

Cumberland, country of, 1, 9; first school in, 5. 

Cumberland Church (Ohio), when organized, 298. 

Cumberland Presbyterian, The, name changed to, 231; committee 
to form stock company for, 234, 235; location of, 460; in Penn- 
sylvania, 389, 591. 

Cumberland Presbytery, opposition to heresy, 44; created, 56; ex- 
tent of, 56; two parties in, 77; refusal of majority to submit, 78; 
right to originate process, 79; failed to appeal, 82; dissolved by 
order of Kentucky Synod, 82; re-organized, 84; no charges 
brought against its members, 84; Dr. Ely's testimony, 85; op- 
position, 85; first meetings, 86; last effort at reconciliation, S6; 
purchase of a library, 86, 115; adjustment of "union'' difficul- 
ties, S"j; dealing with probationers, 87; regard for the Sabbath, 



Index. 653 

87, 88; ordained missionaries, 90; its school of science and divin- 
ity, 90; heroism required, 90; biographical sketches of ministers, 
90—92; names of licentiates, 92; names of candidates, 92; union 
desired, 93; epithet "Cumberland Presbyterian," 1, 114. 

Cumberland Presbytery (Nashville), its members, 94; its boundaries, 
94, in; manner of representation, no; fast days, in; plan of 
work, 112, 113; in favor of a school, 116; established circuits in 
West Tennessee, 148. 

Cumberland Presbyterian Church, name of, 1, 114; origin of, 10; 
spiritual power, 28; its high calling, 74-76; a separate church 
not aimed at, 93; origin of the name, 1, 114; difference in growth 
in two States, 173; great transition period, 207; extent of in 1829, 
207; two parties in, 362; mushroom colleges, 362; attitude on the 
$ slavery question, 410-419; conservative spirit of, 419. 

Cumberland Presbyterian Church (colored), 432-439; claims of, 
437, 438; representative from Greenville Presbytery, 436; eccle- 
siastical separation, 434, 435; growth of, 437, 468; prosperity of, 
436, 437; school at Bowling Green (Ky.), 437; committee to co- 
operate with, 435, 459. 

Cumberland College, openea, 215; agents and debts, 215; proposi- 
tion to lease, 216; joint stock company formed, 217; transfer 
threatened, 217; board of trust appointed, 217, 218; report of com- 
mittee on education, 218; commission meets, 218; accepted the 
offer from Lebanon, Term., 218; report of the commission, 219- 
221; the Assembly's decision, 221, 222; protest, 223; plan presented 
by the minority of the committee on education, 222; friends 
resolve to keep it alive, 223; its useful career, 224; ceased to be a 
Cumberland Presbyterian institution, 224; glimpses of its inner 
history, 224-228. 

Cumberland College (California), 353. 

Cumberland Female College, 565, 566. 

Cumberland Presbyterian Pulpit, 592. 

Cumberland University, 509-526; a new charter, 510; re-opening 
after the war, 515, 516; Camp Blake, 518; changes, 511; faculty, 
509, 510, 524; great prosperity, 513, 514; Finley bequest, 517; 
Murdock library, 518; pro-rata salaries, 510; purchase of Ca- 
ruthers building, 516, 519; law department, 512, 513, 515, 525; 
theological department, 514, 521; law concerning, 522, 523; trus- 
tees of, 509; war closed the departments, 515; struggles with life 
insurance companies, 520; table of statistics, 523, 524. 



654 Index. 

Cummings, Rev. Charles, first preacher in Tennessee, 6. 
Cunningham, Rev. W. N., missionary and educator, 354. 

D. 
Dalton, Rev. J. G., 614, 615. 
Dancing, Assembly's deliverance, 460. 

Darby, Rev. Dr. W. J., his pamphlet history, 165, 167; 457, 460, 488. 
Darnall, Rev. Dr. W. H., missionary in Chattanooga, 474. 
Davidson, Rev.' Dr., 7, 40, 83. 
Daviess, Joe, 2. 
Davis, Rev. Dr. C. A., 643. 

Davis, W. I., president Union Female College, 565. 
Delany Academy (Ind.), 542, 555. 
Delany, Rev. H. F., sermon of, 31; an incident, 153. 
Dennis, Rev. Dr. Samuel, a paper by, 59S. 

De Witt, Rev. Dr. M. B., chaplain, 430; 435; soliciting agent Board 
of Publication, and editor of various periodicals, 584, 596; super- 
intendent of Sunday-schools, 456. 

Dickens, Rev. J. L., president Bethel College, 568. 

Dickerson, Rev. J. II. , missionary, 477. 

Dickey, Rev. Dr. C. A., 450. 

Dillard, Rev. Dr. John L., first itinerant, to West Tennessee, 148; 
approval of revision, 604. 

Doctrines, 73; committee to prepare synopsis of, 98: comparison of 
creeds, 106, 107; test at the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, 108. 

Donnell, D. M., president Union Female College, 566. 

Donnell, Rev. George, sent to East Tennessee, 145; not paid, 147. 

Donnell, Rev. Robert, an incident of, 29; his covenant, 34; an agent, 
60; camp-meeting in Alabama, 89; biographical sketch, 92; in 
Nashville, 127; president Board of Missions, 132; first evangelist 
in East Tennessee, 143, 144; sent to Hunt's Spring, 156; doubts 
as to location of Cumberland College, 215; defends the conven- 
tion, 236; visits Pennsylvania, 274; last letter, 320; organized 
church in Memphis, 373; a prayer and a vow, 412; 557. 



Index. 655 

Donnelson, Col., 2. 

Dooley, Rev. Linville, a faithful minister, 351; 440. 

Dooley, Rev. O. D., 440. 

Drennan, Mrs. A. M., arrival in Japan, 494; school opened, 495; 
classes for young men, 495. 

Duffield, Miss Bettie A., arrives in Japan, 500; work with Miss 
Orr, 500. 

Dunaway, W. E., publishing agent, 583. 

Dunbar (Neb.), 616. 

Durant, Elder, facts from the life of, 376. 

Duvall, Rev. C. P., 472. 



E. 

Eagan, Rev. H. W., pioneer, 616, 617 

Earle, Rev. Dr. F. R., president Cane Hill College, 569, 570. 

Edgar, Geo. W., trustee Lincoln University, 549. 

Education, without books, 5. 

Education, The Board of, its organization, 316; instruction to ap- 
point agent for theological school, 522. 

.Education, Ministerial, 48-65; questions of that day still debated, 
57; errors concerning, 57; slander refuted, 58; held in esteem, 
proof, 58-61; a curious inconsistency, 61; a change, 62; licens- 
ing catechists, 64; woman's sphere, 64; the necessity of, recog- 
nized, 201. 

Elk Presbytery, organized, 93, 94; original members, 94; manner of 
representation, no; its extent, in; plan of work, 112, 113; first 
to move in Indian missions, 129; mission work in southern Ala- 
bama, 157; favored a Board of Missions for the whole church, 132. 

Estill, Rev. Milton, organized first church in Texas, 269. 

Estill, Capt. Wallace, account of Gasper meeting, 12. 

Evangelists, 618-621; work began, 619; lay evangelists, 619-621; 
error of the ministry, 619, 620. 

Evangelical Lutheran Church, correspondence with, 458. 

Evansville (Ind.), 167; Assembly at, 448, 456. 



656 Index. 

Ewing, Rev. Finis, at school, 6, 7; testimony of, 27; an anecdote of, 28; 
before Transylvania Presbytery, 48; licensed, 49; testimony in 
favor of an educated ministry, 59; biographical sketch of, 91; 
testimony concerning sanctification, 104; settled in Missouri, 178; 
opened school of the prophets, 178; sermon on slavery, 411; 
emancipated his slaves, 410. 

Ewing, Hon. R. C, professor in law department in Lincoln Univer- 
sity, 546. 



F. 

Factoryville (Neb.), 616. 

Farr, Rev. Dr. W. B., editor St. Louis Observer, 595. 

Fast Days, appointed, 319. 

"Fencing" the Table, iio. 

Ferguson, Rev. Dr. Fergus, visit of, iS; 452, 4^3. 

Fincher, Rev. F. M., anecdote of, 634. 

Finney, N. J., president Cumberland Female College, 566. 

First Preachers, privations of, 3; unconverted, 7; testimony in favor 
of an educated ministry, 59, 60; preferred the wilderness, 187; 
thorough preaching, 118, 119. 

Folsom, Rev. Israel, 329; devotion to his people, 330, 331. 

Foster, Rev. David, biographical sketch of, 92; extract from letter, 
139; ordered to East Tennessee, 145. 

Foster, Rev. Dr. R. V., editor Sunday-school periodicals, 587. 

Fraternal Correspondence, a committee on, 317; correspondence 
with the General Assembly of the Presbyterian (New School) 
church, 317-319; with General Assembly (Old School), 319. 

Frazier, Rev. R., editor The Ark, 593. 

Frazier, Rev. Samuel W., a missionary to Texas, 269. 

Freeman, Rev. Dr. Azel, professor in Cumberland College, 227, 228; 
professor in Madison College, 529, 531; principal Delany Acad- 
emy (Ind.), 542; president Lincoln University, 544, 545; presi- 
dent Bethel College, 568. 

Frizzell, John, stated clerk, 449, 456; resigned, 459; moderator Gen- 
eral Assembly, 459; appointed to prepare a digest, 589. 



Indsx. 657 

Eullerton, Rev. B. P., in Kansas City, 472. 
Fuqjja, A. J., 435. 

G. 

Gallagher, Rev. James, narrative of, 15; testimony of, 25; discus- 
sion by, 37. 

Gasper River, meeting at, 13; medical treatment of "the jerks,", 47; 
commission met at, 80; of historic interest, 121. 

Gaut, J. M., corresponding secretary Board of Publication, 587. 

General Assembly of the Cumberland Presbyterian church, first 
meeting, 207, 208; college, paper and the "book concern" sources 
of anxiety, 208; home missionary work a bright feature, 209; re- 
solved to co-operate with the American Board, 209; benevolent 
enterprises receive indorsement, 209; opposition to statistics, 209; 
fast days declared, 210; few appeals, 210; few exciting debates, 
210; declaration against making, selling, or giving away ardent 
spirits, 211; theological department postponed, 211; biennial in- 
stead of annual meetings, 212, 311; growth of synods and pres- 
byteries, 212; passing away of the fathers, 213; the credit system, 
213; large bodies not competent to manage financial enterprises, 
213; its organ, 230; struggle and controversy, 232; plans of com- 
mittees, 232; committee of investigation church paper, 239; 
opening sermon of 1843, 311; great speech of 1S45, 3 12 ' mis- 
sionary work of the church, 312; a Committee on Publication, 
313; report of the board unsatisfactory, 314; new committee, 314; 
Board of Education organized, 316; Board of Church Erection 
organized, 316; Committee on Fraternal Correspondence, 317- 
319; a complete history of the church, 319; day of meeting 
changed, 320; ratified the formation of California Presbytery, 
352; from 1S61 to 1870, 380; smallness of that of 1861, 3S0; tem- 
porary committees appointed, 381; committees re-organized in 
1863, 382; meetings in Lebanon, Ohio, and Evansvillc, Intl., 3S3; 
distressing condition of affairs, 382, 3S3; convention at Chatta- 
nooga, 383; convention at Selma, Ala., 3S3, 384; convention at 
Memphis, Tenn., 384; Assembly at Owensboro, Ky., 384; mission 
boards at Lebanon, Tenn., and Alton, 111., re-organized, 3S4; 
Pacific coast committee taken under care of, 3S4; Assembly at 
Memphis, 385; a Committee on Organic Union, 385; Board of 
Publication re-organized at Nashville, 385; Assembly at Mur- 
freesboro, Tenn., 3S7; Boards of Missions consolidated and 
located at St. Louis, 3S8; a sharp discussion, 3SS; a compromise, 
42 



658 Index. 

389; new presbyteries, 389; consolidation of synods, 389; action 
in regard to slavery, 417, 418; at Nashville, 448, 459; at Evans- 
ville, 448; at Huntsville, 449, 458; Austin, Texas, 458; Jefferson, 
Texas, 455; Lebanon, 455; Lincoln, 455; McKeesport, Pa., 459; 
Memphis, 456; semi-centennial, 456; action concerning the Pan- 
Presbyterian Council, 464; on co-operation in foreign missions, 
£^04; on dancing, 460. 

General Assembly of the Presbyterian church, testimony of, 128; 
apology of Kentucky Synod, 67; deliverance of, 68, inquiries to, 
6S\ disapproved the action of Kentucky synod, 80. 

General Synod, its management of Cumberland College, 201; minor 
matters, 202, 203; expediency of organizing a General Assembly; 
203: strong feeling in favor of a delegated synod, 204; minor 
rules and transaction, 204, 205; resolved into four synods, 205; 
necessary changes in Form of Government, 205; synodical 
period, 205; final adjournment, 206; Minutes lost, 310. 

General Reflections, 623-626. 

Georgia, planting of the church in, 357; extent of the work in, 358. 

Gill, Rev. Dr. J. M., 459; president Cumberland Female College, 566. 

Gillespie, Rev. E. J., 440; in St. Louis, 471. 

Gillespie, Rev. Jacob, manuscript of, 347; a pioneer in Oregon, 348. 

Gilliam, Rev. F. M., in St. Louis, 470. 

Givens, Rev. S. D., 610. 

Goodpasture, Rev. A. H., 417. 

Gordon, Rev. Dr. M. L., missionary to Japan, 480, 482-484. 

Goshen, 121; an incident, 126. 

Greene Academy, work of, 528. 

Green, Rev. Dr. J. B., sent to Kansas, 361; 441; 615. 

Green, Nathan, reminiscences of, 51S, 519; work of, 521. 

Green, Hon. Nathan, Sr., professor in law department Cumberland 
University, 512. 

Greenville Seminary, 563. 

Greenwood Seminary, 563. 

Grider, Rev. J. S., agent Lincoln University, 549. 

Groves, Rev. J. S., editor Texas Observer, 594. 



Index. 659 

Guthrie, Robert, 7. 

Guthrie, Rev. J. S., extract from letter, 139; sent to Hiwassee circuit, 
145; sent to West Tennessee, 149; in Alabama, 161. 

Guthrie, R. J., president Union Female College, 565. 

Guthrie Presbytery, when organized, 389. 



H. 

Hail, Rev. A. D., accepted as a candidate, 482, 484, 485; ordained t© 
mission work, 485; sailed, 485; general mission work, 486; letter 
from, 488; translations by, 489; author of principles governing 
mission work, 493; in America, 502. 

Hail, Rev. J. B., accepted as a candidate, 482, 484, 4S5; sailed for 
Japan, 485; first baptism, 4S7; translation by, 489. 

Hall, Rev. Benj., 441. 

Hall, Rev. Dr. Thomas, an incident, 55. 

Halsell, Rev. J. M., editor Banner of Peace, 591; editor The Ladies' 
Pearl, 595. 

Harris, Mrs. C. M., editor The Gem and Our Lambs, 587. 

Harris, Rev. Dr. D. M., professor Lincoln University, 550; editor 
Cumberland Presbyterian, 550, 586. 

Harris, Rev. William, prayer of, 35; biographical sketch of, 92; 
dedication of his grandson, 95; pen pictures, 96; first in Indiana, 
164; in Pennsylvania, 2S4. 

Hawkins, Rev. A. W., in Logansport (Ind.), 473. 

Hays, Rev. Dr. J. S., address of, 453-455. 

Henderson, Rev. E. P., 617. 

Henderson, Rev. J. T. A., a pioneer, 176; an incident, 287; pastor of 
Hopewell (Pa.) church, 289; in Sedalia (Mo.), 473. 

Henderson, Rev. Dr. Robert, an orderly meeting, 43. 

Henderson, Rev. T. H., 611. 

Hendrix, Rev. Dr. W. W., president Bethel College, 568. 

Henson, J. C, 418. 

Hess, Mrs. Margaret, memoir of, 3. 



66o 



Index. 



Hess, Rev. N. J., an incident, 148. 

Hill, Rev. Hugh B., in Ohio, 299; pastor Oak Grove (Tenn.) church, 
303; an incident, 373. 

Hill, Rev. H. H., in Alabama and Mississippi, 259. 

Hodge, Rev. Dr. Charles, on Old Side views, 8; on "the jerks," 47. 

Hodge, Rev. William, pastor at Shiloh, Tenn., 13; testimony of, 47. 

Hodges, Rev. C. B., 614, 615. 

Hogan, Rev. David, incident of, 477. 

Hopewell Church (Enfield, 111.), first organized, 171. 

Hopewell Church (Iowa), organized by Rev. J. C. Armstrong, 339. 

Hopewell Church (Pa.), its origin, 288. 

Hopewell Presbytery, when and where organized; its original 
members, 150. 

Houghton, Rev. A. H., sent to northern Iowa and southern Minnesota, 
340; 441. 

Howard, Rev. Joseph, second church in Iowa organized in his house 
by Rev. Cyrus Haynes, 336. 

Howard, Rev. Dr. J. M., editor Cutnberland Presbyterian, 586. 

Howard, Rev. J. S., president Union Female College, 565; president 
Bethel College, 568. 

Hudson, Rev. G. G., arrival in Japan, 502; report of, 487. 

Hudson, Rev. S. E., 418; influence of, 528. 

Hughes, Rev. Martin, 615. 

Humphrey, Rev. J.F., appeal of, 439. 

Hunter, Rev. Dr. H. A., testimony of, 28; professed religion, 133; 
an incident, 153; touching accounts, 166; 417, 425. 

Huntsville (Ala.), Assembly, at, 449. 

Huntsville Presbytery, when organized, 389. 

Hurst, T. M., publishing agent, 587. 

Hutchinson, Elder, 7. 

Hutchinson, James, statement of, 52, 53. 

■>.■•'- 
Hyde, Rev. W. A., 611. 

Hymn Book, The, its history, 315, 316. 



^ 



Index. 66i 

I. 

Illinois, planting of churches, 168; first sermon, 168; first church, 171; 
hardships, 172; first presbytery, 173; papers in, 594. 

Illinois Presbytery, when organized; its original members, 173. 

Indiana, planting churches, 164; date of first churches, 165; hard- 
ships, 166; early camp-meetings, 167. 

Indians, mission to the, 128; societies formed for special work among' 
the, 129; a constitution for a ladies' missionary society, 129; an 
organization in Russellville, Ky., 129; arrangements for a school 
among the, 130; the Chickasaw Nation never at war with our 
people, 130; traditions of Tombigbee River, 131; establishment 
of a school, treaty signed, 132; government aid for, 134; Rev. 
William Barnett won, 136; hardships, 139; programme of duties, 
140; mission closed, 141; Lowry's mission to the Winnebagoes, 

3 2 4- 
Iowa, origin of the church in, 336; first church in, 336; ruffianism, 337; 
sufferings of pioneer preachers, 340. 

Iowa Presbytery, when organized, 337; original members, 337. 

Ish, Rev. T. A., a letter from, 350, 351. 



J- 

Jackson's Purchase, the work in, 150, 151. 

J arm an, T. N., tutor Cumberland University, 510. 

Jefferson (Texas), 455; an incident, 445. 

Jenkins, Rev. J. E., allusion to pamphlet by, 165. 

Jerks, The, 46, 47. 

Johnson, Rev. B. J., 616. 

Johnson, Rev. Dr. Felix, 431; president Bethel College, 56S. 

Johnson, Rev. James, autobiography of, 376. 

Johnson, L. A., president Trinity University, 553. 

Johnson, Rev. Neil, in Iowa, 337; in Oregon, 345; his journey, 346. 

Johnson, Rev. Robert, statement of, 436. 

Johnston, Rev. T. M., editor Pacific Observer, 596; 354, 355. 

Jones, Hon. W. B., trustee Lincoln University, 549. 



662 Index. 

K. 

Kansas, beginning of work in, 358; opened to white settlers, 359; a 
descriptive letter, 359; first church organized, 360. 

Kansas City, self-sustaining, 472. 

Kansas Presbytery, when and where organized, 360; original mem- 
bers, 360; prohibition, 360; strength of, 361. 

Kentucky Synod, commission of investigation, 77; commission met, 
77; no right to originate process, 79; Dr. Davidson's concession, 
79; General Assembly of 1807 disapproves, 80; place of meeting 
unfortunate, 80; revised it's actions, 83; extent of, 44; charges 
brought by, 67; terms laid down by, 68; exciting controversies, 1. 

Kentucky Synod (Cumberland Presbyterian), date of formation, 320; 

disappears from rolls, 390. 
King Presbytery, when organized, 389. 
King, Richard, conversion of, 7, J 3- 

King, Rev. R. D., autobiography of, 157; an incident, 159; sent to 
Missouri, 179, iSo;, closed his life in Texas, 181, 194; ordained, 
191; hardships in Arkansas, 193; in Louisiana, 261; anecdote of 
his mother, 627; ruling passion strong in death, 633. 

King, Rev. R. M., president Cane Hill College, 569. 

King, Mrs. Samuel, anecdote of, 627, 628. 

King, Rev. Samuel, at school, 6; evangelistic tour, 34; before Tran- 
sylvania Presbytery, 49; first against whisky, 54; an agent, 60; 
biographical sketch, 91; 94, 124, 126; sent to the Indians, 129; 
moved to Missouri, 180; sketch of, 185; visitation by order of 
Assembly, 211; in Louisiana, 261; attitude on temperance, 604. 

Kirkpatrick, Rev. Hugh, biographical sketch of, 92; heroic endur- 
ance, 148. 

Knoxville Presbytery, when organized, 147; its original members, 
147. 

L. 

Ladies' Pearl, The, 389; 595. 

Langdon, Rev. W. S., financial agent Committee of Publication, 315; 
rule for newspaper discussions, 370; in St. Louis, 471; publishing- 
agent, 582; editor Banner of Peace, 591; editor Ladies' Pearl, 
595; description of lay evangelism, 619. 



Index. 663 

Lansden, Rev. Abner W., sent to East Tennessee, 145. 

Latham, Col. R. B., trustee Lincoln University, 54S, 549. 

Latta, Rev. E. C, description of meeting, 3^2; 440. 

Loughran, Rev. Cornelius, a Presbyterian minister, 273; changed 
relation, 2S3. 

Loughran, Rev. J., president Waynesburg College, 533; resigned, 534. 

Lawyer, Rev. F. P., ordained missionary to Mexico, 506. 

Lay Exhorters, 53, 54; activity needed, 64. 

Leavenworth Presbytery, organization of, 360, 3S9; strength of, 
361. 

Leavitt, Miss Julia, arrived in Japan, 490; work at Osaka, 500, 501; 
at Shingu and Tanabe, 501. . 

Lebanon Board of Missions, 441, 442, 447. 

Lebanon Church (Ohio), organization, 298; Rev. Dr. M, H. Bone its 
first pastor, 29S; work of Rev. F. G. Black, 29S; church bell, 2 98, 
299; an incident, 377, 378. 

Lebanon Presbytery, crossed the mountains to hold its meeting, 147. 

Lebanon (Tenn.), 455. 

Lincoln (111.), 455. 

Lincoln University, origin of, 541-544; a charter, 543; endowment, 
543, 544; co-educational, 544; efforts to establish law and theo- 
logical departments, 546; decline in attendance, 546, 547; work 
of, 547; trustees, 548; faculty resigned, 550; list of teachers, 551. 

Lindley, Rev. Jacob, a Presbyterian minister, 273; report of first 
camp-meeting, 280; autobiography of, 2S5; at the meeting of his 
presbytery, 286; becomes a Cumberland Presbyterian, 2S6; his 
work in Ohio, 292, 293; at Beverly, 296; incidents, 294, 295. 

Lindsley, Rev. Dr. J. Berrien, services rendered by, S6. 

Lindsley, Dr. N. Lawrence, professor in Cumberland University, 
510, founder of Greenwood Seminary, 563. 

Little Rock (Ark.), self-supporting, 472. 
Littrell, Rev. J. Cal., 610, 611. 

Logan, Rev. Dr. J. B., secretary Board of Missions, 475; editor, ^\z, 
594' 595' m charge of Spring River Academy, 555; editor 7Vic 
Ladies' Pearl, 595. 



664 Index. 

Logan, Rev. W. C, editor St. Louis Observer ■, 595; editor Theological 
Medium, 596. 

Logan Presbytery, organized, 94; original members, 94; its extent, 
in; plan of work, 112, 113; ladies' missionary society, 132; mis<- 
sionaries sent to other States, 132; districts and missionaries, 164; 
fast days, 165; condemning the Nashville convention, 236. 

Logansport (Ind.), 473. 

Loudon High School, 572. 

Louisiana, planting the church in, 261; first church organized, 261. 

Louisiana Presbytery, when organized, 261; original members, 261; 
dissolved and again revived, 262; Sumner Bacon licensed and 
ordained by, 266. 

Love, Rev. G. W., 615. ' 

Lowry, Rev. David, professor in Cumberland College, 225, 226; 
editor, 230; missionary to the Winnebago Indians, 324-327; 
appeals for missions, 328; organized first Protestant church in 
Iowa, 336; in favor of concentration in the North-west, 337; 
reply to Dr. Wilson, 62; testimony on temperance, 608. 

Lowry, S. Doak, in charge of Cane Hill College, 569. 

Lyle, Rev. John, bearer and defender of Minutes of Kentucky 
Synod, 83. 



M. 

MacCrae, Rev. Dr., quotation from, 71. 

Madison College, work of, 528, 529, 531. 

Majors, Alexander, pioneer in Nebraska, 613. 

Mariner, William, professor in Cumberland University, 513; pro- 
fessor in Lincoln University, 548. 

Marshall, Mrs. Mary, a pioneer worker, 199, 200. 

Mattox, Rev. G. N., work of, 423, 424. 

McAdow, Rev. Samuel, two sermons, 36; night spent in prayer, 84; 
biographical sketch, 90; sermons, 105; settled in Illinois, 174. 

McBryde, Rev. W. P., an incident, 637. 

McCallan, Rev. J. B., an incident, 302. 

McCord, Rev. B. F., professor in Lincoln University, 548. 



Index. 665 

McCorkle, Rev. Archibald, a Missouri pioneer, 1S2. 

McCrosky, Rev. E. J., in Chattanooga, 474. 

McCutcheon, Rev. J. F., 429; an incident, 429, 430. 

McDaniel, Rev. Hiram, in Arkansas, 195. 

McDonald, Alexander, a mother's prayers, 642, 643. 

McDonnold, Rev. Dr. B. W., president Cumberland University, 516; 
Life Insurance Companies, 520, 521; president Bethel College, 
56S. 

McDonnold, Rev. James, first itinerant in West Tennessee, 148; "a 
circuit rider" in Texas, 270. 

McDonnold, Rev. Philip, wonderful career, 96. 

McGee College, 561; list of teachers, 562; importance of, 562, 563; 
, names of men educated at, 563. 

McGee, Rev. John, 12, 16, 17. 

McGee Presbytery, when organized, 173, 178; "intermediate meet- 
ing," 191. 

McGee, Rev. William, biographical sketch of, 91. 

McGhee, Rev. Z. M., first to settle in Georgia, 358. 

McGhirk, Dr. N. PL, 479; missionary, 480. 

McGlnnis, Albert, professor in Waynesburg College, 538; professor 
and acting president Lincoln University, 550. 

McGlumphy, Rev. Dr. A. J., professor in Waynesburg College, 535: 
professor in Lincoln University, 544; president of Lincoln Uni- 
versity, 546; president Ozark College, 573. 

McGown, Rev. A. J., heroism and integrity of, 267; an incident, 26S; 
at Mississippi Synod, 268; returns to the United States, 271; a 
presentiment of death, 643, 644. 

McGready, Rev. James, statement of, 8; friends of, 9; covenant of, 
10; work began, 11; singing hymns an oftense, 41. 

McKeesport (Pa.), 459. 

McLean, Rev. Ephraim, a true hero, 55, 56; ordained, 84; biograph- 
ical sketch, 91; perplexed on the slavery question, .ji2. 

McLean, George, a trial and a triumph, 636, 637. 

McLean, J. S., 417. 

McLeskey, Rev. Dr. B. G., president Trinity University, 553. 



666 



Index. 



McLin, Rev. D. W., biographical sketch, 92; in Illinois, 171. 

McMurray, Mrs. Elizabeth, narrative furnished by, 13. 

McMukray, Rev. J. M., agent Cumberland University, 511, 512. 

McPherson, Rev. C. G., professor in Cumberland University, 509, 510. 

McSpeddin, Rev. Samuel, at school, 6, 7; testimony about, 8; about 
the origin of the revival, 17; his character, 95. 

Meek, Rev. J. J., 418. 

Memphis, 456. 

Methodists, no opposition from, 26. 

Mexico, work in, 504-506. 

Miller, Rev. Dr. A. B., 450; tutor in Waynesburg College, 533; pro- 
fessor in, 534; president of, 536; his life work, 536, 537; editor 
Cumberland Presbyterian (Pa.), 592, 595. 

Miller, Rev. Barnett, 435. 

Miller, Mrs. M. K. B., work of, 533, 537. 

Miller, Rev. Dr. Samuel, letter of, 30; his ninth letter and its an- 
swer, 43; correction of, 45. 

Milligan, Rev. Mr., resolutions of, 426. 

Ministerial Relief, Board of, organized, 458, 460. 

Ministry, preaching on a call to the, 115. 

Missions, work of synods and presbyteries, 322; city missions, 322, 
469-475; Winnebago Indians, 324-327; two young ladies sent out 
under the A. B. C. F. M., 328; appeal of Rev. David Lowry, 328; 
his report, 328, 329; work among the Indians pressed, 330-332; 
a growing feeling for our own board, 332; first foreign mission- 
ary, 333; from i860 to 1870, 440-447; home mission work, 440, 
441,475; foreign, 441; progress 0^469; work of city missions, 
469-475; a list of growing mission churches, 475; missions 
among the Indians, 476-479; mission to Trinidad, 479-481; work 
in Japan, 482; first convert baptized, 487; first official report, 487; 
extended preaching tour, 488; need of denominational literature, 
489; book and tract store opened, 490; arrival of Miss Orr and 
Miss Leavitt, 490; the annual report, 491; first elders, 492; prin- 
ciples governing mission policy, 493; liberality of, 494; great 
fruitfulness, 495-498; Corea, 496; names of missionaries, 502; 
great gain to the home churches, 503; co-operation with other 
churches, 504; the Missionary Record, 506; systematic giving, 
506, 507; home churches can not live without, 507, 508. 



^ 



Index. 667 

Missions, Board of, organized 312; not chartered until 1845, *33> 2 °95 
no paid officers at first, 312; first president, 312; secretary with 
salary, 312 ; appeal for Liberia, 334; in favor of China, 335; Rev. 
J. C. Armstrong appointed to Turkey, 335; sends Rev. P. H. 
Crider to Iowa, 339; resolved to establish a mission at St. Cloud, 
Minn., 340; Bell's mission closed, 141; board located in St. Louis, 
388; discussion over the plans of, 388. 

Missionary Record, The, 506. 

Mississippi, planting the Church in, 253; a slander denounced, 254; 
vacating the Choctaw and Chickasaw country, 254; speculation 
rife, 255. 

Mississippi Presbytery, when and where organized, 256; original 
members, 256; an incident, 258. 

Mississippi Synod, when organized, extent, 258; organizes Louisiana 
Presbytery, 258; Texas Presbytery, 258, 268; new presbyteries 
created and dissolved, 258; Oxford and New Hope organized, 
258. 

Missouri, origin of the church in, 175; first sermon, 17^; home supply 
of ministers, 181; noble women, 181; camp-meetings, 1S4, 635; 
a pioneer scene sketched, 188; educational work in, 572, 573; 
papers in, 594. 

Mitchell, Rev. Dr. J. B., 450; president McGee College, 561. 

Miyoshi San, at Cumberland University, 502. 

Modrall, Rev. N. P., 418. 

Montana, 618. 

Moody, D. L., an illustration from, 28; record of, 63. 

Moore, Rev. A. A., sent to Kansas, 361. 

Moore, Rev. B. F., first in Colorado, 610. 

Moore, Rev. William, sent to the Indians, 129; interesting incident, 
136; sermon by, 161; his grave, 162. 

Moorman, Rev. R. A. A., an incident, 378. 

Morgan, Rev, John, becomes a preacher, 156; visits Pennsylvania, 
274; account of work, 275; camp-meetings, 281, 293; an incident, 
281; began the publication of the Union and Evangelist, 291; 
visits Ohio, 292, 293; a distillery closed, 293; professor in Madison 
College, 529; incident of, 530; death, 291. 

Morris, Rev. Dr. E. D., corresponding delegate, 456, 467. 



668 Index. 

Morrison, Rev. Dr. James, 452. 

Morrow, Rev. J. B., 635. 

Morrow, Rev. R. D., sent to Missouri, 175; punctuality, 176; report, 
177; opened School of the Prophets, 178; anecdote of, 632, 633. 

Motheral, Rev. N. W., in Chattanooga, 474. 

Mourner's Bench, its use and abuse, 42. 

Mountain View Church, 353. 

Mt. Moriah, first congregation organized as a Cumberland Presbyte- 
rian church, 125; historic sketch, 125, 126. 

Mt. Zion, first church organized in Indiana, 166. 

Muddy River, meeting at, 11. 

Murray, Rev. Gibson W., account of, 160. 



N. 

Nashville, jail of, 7; Robert Donnell began preaching in, 127; much 
opposition, 127; Assembly at, 448. 

Nebraska, early settlers, 612; not supported by the Board of Mis- 
sions, 616. 

Nebraska City, first Cumberland Presbyterian church organized, 
613-615. 

Nebraska Presbytery, when and where organized, 616. 

Nelson, Rev. David, testimony of, 24. 

Nelson, Rev. Dr. H. A., 450. 

Newburg Church (Ind.), 167. 

New Fields, 610. 

New Hope Church, an historic place, 123, 124. 

New Hope Presbytery, when organized, 258; efficiency and energy 
of, 259; united with Columbus Presbytery, 259. 

New Lebanon Church (Mo.), 178; when organized, 187. 
New Lebanon Presbytery, facts from Rea's history, 375; resolu- 
tions in favor of the Maine law, 375* 
Newman, Rev. A. M., death of, 131. 
New Mexico, 611, 612. 



Index. 669 

Newspapers, 590-597. 

Nicholson, Rev. John, a sermon by, 634. 

North Carolina, missionary work in, 357. 



O. 

Oak Grove Church, its annual camp-meetings, 303. 

Ogden, Rev. Benjamin, 7. 

Ogden, Rev. John W., agent Cumberland College, 215; corresponding 
editor, 236; in Louisiana, 261; as agent visits Ohio and Pennsyl- 
vania, 273. 

Ohio, origin of the church in, 292; John Morgan visits Athens, 292, 
293; his preaching closes a distillery, 293; first camp-meeting in, 
293; first church in, 294; first camp-meeting, 294; itinerants ap- 
pointed from Pennsylvania Presbytery, 296; work at Senecaville, 
297; not strong in numbers, 300. 

Ohio Presbytery, prayer for a revival, 10. 

Oregon, origin of church in, 342, 343; Whitman's massacre, 344; facts 
concerning emigration, 344, 345; first church in, 346; manuscript 
sketch by Rev. Jacob Gillespie, 347. 

Oregon Presbytery, when organized, original member^, 347; resolved 
to have a college, 347. 

Organic Union, a committee appointed to confer with a committee 
from the Presbyterian church, South, 3S5; Presbyterian deliver- 
ance on the subject, 386; meeting of committee in Nashville, 
449-451; plan of, 450; response of Presbyterian committee, 451; 
agreement that negotiations should continue, 451 ; action of the 
Cumberland Presbyterian Assembly, 451 ; two ideas to be con- 
sidered, 451. 

Orr, Miss Alice M., arrived in Japan, 490; work in the out stations, 
500, 501. 

Osaka, Japan, first sermon preached in, 486; first converts, 4S7; second 
church organized, 502. 

Osborn, Rev. A. G., a chaplain, 424. 

Our Denominational Progress, 621-623; a discouraging feature, 
622; hopeful signs, 622; comparison, 623. 

Our Lambs, 5S4. 



670 Index. 

Oxford Presbytery, when organized, 258. 
Ozark College, 573. 
Ozark Synod, 390. 

P. 

Pacific Presbytery, when and where organized, 353. 

Parks, Rev. R. C, a native Cherokee, 477. 

Pastors, none in the first and second periods, 89; transition from mis- 
sionary evangelists to, 242; opposition to, 242; a growing senti- 
ment in favor of, 243; the difference between pastors and evan- 
gelists, 244; their difficult calling, 245; mistakes and false views 
concerning, 246; their duty and their compensation, 249; robbed 
by the churches, 249-252. 

Patton, Rev. Daniel, sent to South Alabama, 158; in Missouri, 185; 
glimpse of his work, 186; an account of last meeting of General 
Synod, 203. 

Pearson, Rev. R. G., evangelist, 618. 

Pennsylvania, origin of church in, 273; visited by Bone and Ogden, 
273; invitation and visit of our missionaries, 273-277; first Pres- 
byterian ministers to open their churches, 277; first Cumberland 
Presbyterian church, 278; first camp-meeting, 279; reports in 
church papers, 283: formation of a presbytery, 283; examples of 
our noblest congregations, 287-290. 

Pennsylvania Presbytery, when and where organized, 284; original 
members, 284; its rapid growth, 290; appointed itinerants for 
Ohio, 296. 

Pennsylvania Synod, when and where organized, 291; its prosperous 
condition, 291; action of, 417, 528; resolutions, 531; Waynesburg 
College under control of, 534; semi-centennial, 540; memorial 
from, 480; pledges of, 483, 485. 

Perry, Rev. W. O. H., president of Stewartsville College, 573; presi- 
dent Odessa College, 573. 

Phelps, Rev. Dr. Austin, quotations from, 71, 73. 

Pierson, Rev. Dr. B. H., 151, 304. 

Piner, Rev. F. D., superintendent of Burney Academy, 330. 

Piney, 121 



Index. 671 

Pittsburg (Pa.), temporary location of Committee of Publication, 382,- 
committee discontinued at, 3S5. 

Pittsburg Church, when organized, 290. 

Planting of Churches, 142. 

Porter, Rev. James B., power in preaching, 32; his education and 
conversion, 56; biographical sketch, 91. 

Powell, Rev. R. F., 616. 

Prairie Grove, first church organized among the Cherokee Indians, 

477- 
Presbyterian, The, its charges against Cumberland Presbyterians, 45; 

its statement corrected, 46. 

Presbyteries, organization of new, 468. 

Presbyterian Alliance, constitution of, approved, 458; delegates 
elected to, 458; relation of the Cumberland Presbyterian church 
to, 461, 462; delegates refused admittance, 462, 463; wide-spread 
interest in, 463; delegates appointed to, 464; result of the appli- 
cation, 464-466; report to the General Assembly, 466. 

Presbyterian Church, divisions in, 39, 40; propositions for union 
with, 385-387, 449, 452; our debts to, 625. 

Presbyterian Church (South), considering a change in standard of 
education, 63; negotiations for union with, 385—387. 

Presbyterians, Scotch Irish, church erected by, 6. 

Preston, Rev. W. B., editor Texas Observer, 594. 

Prime, Rev. Dr. S. Iren^eus, recommendation of, 479. 

Provine, Rev. Dr. J. C, secretary and treasurer of Board of Educa- 
tion, 316; author of deliverance of Assembly, 1866, 405; book 
editor and publishing agent, 583; editor Banner of Peace, 591 ; 
editor The Ladies' 1 Pearl, 595. 

Publication, 577; first book published, 578; first step toward a pub- 
lishing department, 578; arrangements made for publication of 
books, 578; hymn book, 578; Board of Publication created, 578. 

Publication, Board of, committee appointed, 313; programme 
changed, 314; management often changed, 314; new committee 
located at Nashville, 314; inheritance from the Louisville Board, 
315; charter secured, 315; missing stereotype plates, 315; re-or- 
ganized, 385,387; debt paid, 461; periodicals purchased by, 460; 
its origin, 578; its first members, 579; a Committee of Publication, 



672 Index. 

579; book editor chosen, 583; assets and liabilities, 587; located 
at Louisville, 579; difficulties, 579, 580; chartered, 582; moneys 
donated to, 582; permanent committee chosen, 5S1; transferred 
to Pittsburg, Pa., 582; re-organized at Nashville, 582; publication 
of newspapers, 584, 585; papers purchased, 585, 586; books pub- 
lished, 5SS, 589; names of members of, 590. 

Pueblo, 611. 

Pyatt, Jacob, an incident, 190. 

Q. 

Qjjaite, Rev. W. G. L., agent Cumberland College, 224; agent Cane 
Hill College, 569. 

R. 

Ransom, Rev. L. C, editor Southern Observer, 384; a sermon by, 385; 

in St. Louis, 469; discipline, 643. 
Rea, Rev. J. W., sent to West Tennessee, 149. 

Re A, Rev. P. G., interesting facts from, 375 ; correction of Hon. R. C. 
Ewing's dates, 375; a barn meeting, 635, 636. 

Red River, meeting at, 12; of historic interest, 120. 

Reed, Rev. R. S., secretary of Board of Missions, 475; in Nebraska, 
613,615. 

Reed, Rev. Wiley M., chairman Committee of Publication, 315; 
speech of, 404. 

Renick, Rev. Robert, a pioneer, 613, 615. 

Republican Valley Presbytery, strength of, 361. 

Revision of Confession of Faith, 598-604; a demand for, 598; a 
committee appointed, 599; its report, 599; a synod's vote of cen- 
sure, 599; appointment of committees and their work rejected 
by the presbyteries, 600; the two committees of 1881, 600; work 
of the committees, 601; changes made by the Assembly of 1882, 
602; grounds of complaint, 603; proof texts, 603; preface, 603, 
an omission, 603; its adoption by the presbyteries, 604; record 
of the vote on, 459. 

Revivals, prayer for, 10; revival of 1800 a genuine work, 20; extent 
of, 26; opposition to, 39; a cause of division, 40; churches closed 
against, 40; personal violence, 40; hyper-Calvinism logically op- 
posed, 41; objections to measures used, 42, defended, 42, 43; 



Indkx. 673 

Rezner, Miss Rena, arrived in Japan December, 1886, 502. 

Rice Rev. David, his removal to Kentucky, 6; testimony of, 7; a ser- 
mon by, 20, 21; opposed to revival "measures," 42; visit to Mc- 
Gready's field, 48; a favorble report, 49; a letter on education and 
answer, 49. 

Rice, Rev. Green P., an incident, 170, 171; first sermon in Missouri, 

*75- 
Rice, Rev. P. A., 611. 

Richards, Rev. Dr. S., a chaplain, 426; professor in Lincoln Univer- 
sity. 544. 54 6 - 

Ridley, Hon. Bromfield L., professor in law department Cumberland 
University, 512. 

Riley, Prof. Philip, an incident, 227. 

Roach, Rev. J. M. B., struggles of, 567. 

Roach, Rev. J. N., president Bethel College, 568; 585. 

Roark, Rev. Amos, first delegate to the General Assembly from 
Texas, 269; return to the United States, 271. 

Robinson, Rev. Calvin, 476. 

Rochester, Rev. Dr., diagram of progress, 26. 

Rocky Mountain Presbytery, its organization, 610. 

Ross, Rev. R. L., a liberal helper in church work, 259; an incident, 
260, 261. 

Round Prairie Church, first in Kansas, 360. 

Rush, John R., delegate to Presbyterian Alliance, 462. 



s. 

Sacramento Presbytery, strength of, 356. 

Sacramento Synod, name changed, 390. 

Schaff, Rev. Dr. Philip, Westminster Confession, 72, 73. 

Schools and Colleges, 555, 556; importance of a lower grade of, 
557; multiplication of colleges, 559; warnings of the Assemblies, 
559' 56°' names reported, 560. 

Scott, Rev. Dr. W. A., left the church, 240; in Louisiana, 261. 

Sedalia (Mo.), 473. 
43 



674 Index. 

Selma (Ala.), temporary Committee on Missions for the South at, 384, 
convention at, 383, 384. 

Shakers, attitude of the first Cumberland Presbyterian ministers 
toward the, 25. 

Sharp, Rev. J. E., in Kansas City, 472. 

Sharp, James H., professor in Cumberland University, 511. 

Shelby, Rev. Aaron, his lease of Cumberland College, 216. 

Sherrill, W. B., president Bethel College, 568. 

Shiloh Church, 13; meeting at, 14; identical with De Sha's, 18. 

Shook, Rev. Isaac, secretary of Board of Missions, 312; his mission- 
ary magazine, 312: his resignation, 313; agent of Board of Pub- 
lication, 315; visit to Mississippi, 255; an incident, 257; pastor at 
Columbus, Miss., 258; in Ohio, 298; story of the "stars falling," 
3°4- 

Shouting, origin of, 18; opposition to, 41. 

Sims, Rev. R. J., an evangelist, 618; a case of fasting and prayer, 637; 
a gainsay er converted, 638; a band of rowdies conquered, 639. 

vSimmons, A. M. C, 435. 

Sloan, Rev. Robert, a circuit rider, 181; died in Missouri, 196. 

Slavery, relation of Cumberland Presbyterians to, 410; relation of 
first ministers to, 410; a sermon by Ewing, 411; McAdow op- 
posed to, 411; some preachers perplexed, 412; men forced to 
become slave owners, 413; attitude of The Revivalist, 413-416; 
attitude of the Cumberland Presbyterian, 416; report of the 
Assemblies of 1848 and 185 1 on the subject, 416-418. 

Small, Rev. J. M., work of, 353. 

Smith, Rev. Hugh R., services of, 182. 

Smith, Rev. James, editor, pastor, and stated clerk, 230; resignation, 
232; continued as editor, 233; call for convention, 233; in the 
convention, 234; re-appearance of paper, 235; attitude on the 
college question, 237; ubiquitous, 238; his inconsistent course, 239; 
history by, 16. 

Smith, Rev. John C, appointed missionary, 134. 

Smith, Rev. J. J., missionary, 477. 

Smith, Rev. Dr. J. T., 450. 

Smyrna, 121, 122. 



Index. 675 

Soldiers, preaching to, 420; chaplains in Confederate armies, 420, 421, 
426; in the Union armies, 423-426; programme of services, 428. 

Sonoma Academy, 353, 354. 

Spain, J. D., 588. 

Sparks, Rev. S. M., goes to Pennsylvania, 284. 

Speer, Rev. Dr., narrative of, 15, 26, 46. 

Springfield (Mo.), Assembly at, 451-453. 

Springer, Rev. Dr. F., chairman Committee on Correspondence, 45S. 

Spring Hill Academy, the first school in Cumberland, 5, 6. 

Spring Hill Institute, aim and origin of, 571. 

Spring River Academy, 555. 

Sprowls, Rev. Dr. J. P., chairman of Committee cm Correspondence, 

45 s - 
Statistics, prejudice against, 116; Dr. Burrow opposed, 117; 468. 

Steele, Rev. A. J., work in Alabama, 156. 

Steele, Rev. J. H., 611. 

Stephens, Rev. A. H., in Sedalia, 473. 

St. Louis, mission work in, 469-472. 

Stewart, Gen. A. P., professor in Cumberland University, 511; offered 
the presidency of University, 516; evangelist, 621. 

Stewart, Rev. S. T., publishing agent, 582. 

Stewartsville College, 573. 

Stone, Rev. A. M., president Cumberland Female College, 566. 

Stone, Rev. Barton W., 44. 

Sunday Morning, 587. 

Sunday School Comments, 587. 

Sunday-School Gem, The, 389; 584. 

Sweeny, Rev. A. W., 617. 

Synods, consolidation of, 467. 

Synod, First, when and where organized, 94; a sketch of its members, 
94; report of committee to prepare statement of doctrine, 98, 99; 

old customs, 109-119; manner of representation, 110; effort to 
organize a presbytery in South Alabama, 157; plan for a school 
adopted, 201. 



676 Index. 

T. 

Tate, Rev. Robert, his work and death, 269. 

Taylor, A. R., professor in Lincoln University, 547; principal Kansas 
State Normal School, 547. 

Tehuacana, site of Trinity University, 552. 

Temperance, 604; early attitude of the church on, 604; church papers 
a unit, 604, 605; utterance of the church courts, 605-607. 

Templeton, Rev. Dr. A., in Chattanooga, 474; anecdote of, 358. 

Tennessee Presbytery, when organized, 159; an intermediate ses- 
sion of, 159; resolved to establish and endow a college, 362. 

Texas, planting the church in, 263; first Protestant sermon in, 264; first 
camp-meeting, 265, 269; the revolt of, 267; first church organized, 
269; first Protestant minister ordained, 271; rapid growth, 272; 
table of dates, 272. 

Texas Cumberland Presbyterian — Texas Observer, 594. 

Texas Presbytery, when organized, 268; original members, 268; 
decided measures adopted, 269; elders sent to help to organize 
churches, 270; incidents, 270; a period of darkness, 271. 

Texas Presbyterian, The, 593. 

Texas Synod, when organized, 271; its presbyteries, 271. 

The Theological Medium, 389, 584, 596, 597. 

Theological School, efforts to establish a, 363; location at Lebanon, 
Tenn., 363; action of Bethel College, 363; action of General As- 
sembly, 364; new missionary life awakened in, 506; more than a 
department of the University, 521, 522; laws binding on pro- 
fessors in, 522; co-education, 523; first, 178, 179; no theological 
department in Cumberland College, 211, 212. 

The Pacific Observer, 354, 596. 

The Watchman and Evangelist, 594. 

Thomas, Rev. Dr. R. S., principal Union Female College, 564. 

Thomas, Rev. S. Y., sent to East Tennessee, 146; pioneer in West 
Tennessee, 150; his labors in Concord church, 302. 

Tokens, their use dropped, 109. 

Tombigbee Presbytery, when organized, 15S. 

Topp, Col. John S., an anecdote of, 254. 



Index. 67 j 

Transylvania Presbytery, 48, 49; division of, 1, 56. 

Trinity University, origin of, 551, 552; endowment, 553; importance 

of > 553^ 554; its work > 554- 
The Rays of Light, 587. 
Tulare Presbytery, strength of, 356; when organized, 389. 

U. 
Union Female College, founding of, 564. 
Union Presbytery (Presbyterian), 4. 

Union Presbytery (Pa.), when and where organized, 291. 
Union Synod, name changed, 390. 
Uniontown Church (Pa.), one of the first in Pennsylvania, 2S7. 

V. 
Van Patten, Rev. J. C, agent Lincoln University, 549. 
Venezuela, as a mission field, 480, 481. 

w. 

Walla Walla (W. T.), 616, 617. 

Walla Walla Presbytery, 618. 

Ward, John Shirley, editor The Ladies" Pearl, 595. 

Ward, Rev. Dr. W. E., appointed a delegate to Presbyterian Alliance, 
462; agent Cumberland University, ^14; an incident, 515; founder 
Ward's Seminary, 570, 571; president Board of Publication, 589; 
editor Banner of Peace, 591. 

Ward's Seminary, 570, 571. 

War Record, 391; sermon by Rev. Dr. Milton Bird, 391-39^; resolu- 
tions in 1861, 395; report in 1862, 396, 397; in 1S63, 398,399; the 
deliverance of 1864, 399,400; protest, 401-403; resolution of 1865, 
403; action of Southern conventions, 404; secession of Oxford 
Presbytery, 404; Chattanooga convention, 404; determination to 
avoid schism, 405; deliverance of 1866, 405; resolutions of Penn- 
sylvania Synod, 406; deliverance of 1S67, 407; report of 1S6S, 
408-410. 



6/8 Index. 

Warren, Rev. J. H., superintendent Sunday-schools, 456. 

Washington (Tenn.), work of first evangelists at, 143. 

Washington Territory, 616-618. 

Watkins, Rev. R. O., first candidate for the ministry in Texas, 268; 
driven from his work, 270; first Protestant minister ordained in 
Texas, 271. 

Watson, Rev. Benjamin, reflections of, 374; his history, 374, 375. 

Waukon Church (Iowa), organized, 339. 

Waynesburg Church (Pa.), organized, 283. 

Waynesburg College, 527-541; founded, 533; charter granted, 534; 
passed under control of Pennsylvania Synod, 534; its relation to 
the Cumberland Presbyterian church, 534; labors of Dr. Miller 
in > 53 6 > 537^ of Mrs - Miller, 537; work of, 537, 538, 541; pro- 
fessors and teachers, 533, 535, 538; theological department, 538, 
539; endowment, 539, 540. 

Weekly Papers, consolidation of, 460, 585, 586. 

Weethee, Rev. J. P., 528, president of Madison College, 529; presi- 
dent Beverly College, 532; president Waynesburg College, 535. 

Weir, Rev. Edmond, missionaiy to Liberia, 333; commissioned to 
raise funds, 333; work in Liberia, 334, 335; 441-443. 

Weir, Rev. J. C, a pioneer in Alabama, 162. 

Weir, Rev. Moses T., seeks separate organization for colored people, 
435; at Warrensburg Assembly, 436. 

Westminster Confession, reservations in adopting, 66; meaning of 
the word "fatality," 66: doctrinal difficulty, 67; ecclesiastical de- 
liverances in 181 1, 6S; proposed substitute for, 69; doctrines not 
accepted as of old, 70; difficulties of liberal defenders, 71; utter- 
ance of Rev. Dr. MacCrae, 71; protests coming from Calvinists, 
71-73; the third chapter rejected, 73. 

West Tennessee, 148-160; an incident, 377. 

West Virginia, a small beginning, 357. 

Whatley, Rev. A. H., missionary to Mexico, 504, 505; work com- 
menced, 505, 506. 

White, Rev. A. W., his work under Christian Commission, 423. 

White, Rev. J. G., evangelist in Iowa, 337; missionary at St. Louis, 
469. 



Index. 679 

Wichita Presbytery, strength of, 361. 

Williams, Dixon C, evangelist, 618, 621. 

Williams, Rev. R. A., 616. 

Wills, Rev. R. H., 617. 

Wilson, Rev. A. M., 441. 

Wilson, John D., publishing agent, 587. 

Wilson, Rev. Dr. J. L., statement of, 62; one of the commission, Si. 

Winchester, Rev. G. L., his work as chaplain, 427, 431. 

Woman's Board of Missions, organization, 457, 487, 4S8; its success, 
457; first Board of Missions a Woman's Board, 457; arrival of 
Miss Orr and Miss Leavitt in Japan, 490; arrival of Mrs. Dren- 
nan, 494; the girls' school opened, 495; Mrs. Drennan's classes 
for young men, 495; arrival of Miss Duffield, 500; arrival of Miss 
Rezner, 502; names of missionaries, 502. 

Woods, Rev. J. W., work as chaplain, 426. 

Woods, Rev. LeRoy, his journey to Pennsylvania, 284; his marriage, 
285; publishing agent, 579; testimony concerning first Presbyte- 
rian preachers, 527, 528; reasons for going to the legislature, 605; 
incidents furnished by, 529, 628, 629. 

Y. 

Yager, Rev. C, in California, 351, 440. 
Young, Rev. A. A., a pioneer, 1S5. 
Young, Rev. T. E., 435. 




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